Independent Petroleum IPAA

=<div>
</div><div>SAAB? interlocks w/ other trade assoc</div><div>
</div><div>see CA cipa ass kicked in ct</div><div>
</div><div>SEE TWO</div><div>
</div><div>SEE EID
<div>primary 3/19 cult corrupt, crony pending</div><div>
</div><div>html end: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ipaa.org/reports/econreports/InYourState/" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaavkleqvr4xn3pgqkamqhduxfqtu7kttkpd5ra8ainfartq2irxfwt2qedafttj2fspioe1ecoleuowwjgzyab="AAAAVklEQVR4Xn3PgQkAMQhDUXfqTu7kTtkpd5RA8AInfArtQ2iRXFWT2QedAfttj2FsPIOE1eCOlEuoWWjgzYaB" ikegorxxhqb="IkeGOrxXhqB" ua9bfcm0lazuh="uA9Bfcm0lAZuh" yiead="YIeAD" caqsz4kcmuaaaaasuvork5cyii="); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" background-image="background-image" url="url" xmlns:data="data">Oil & Gas in Your State”</a></div><div>=</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/10/07/slapp-lawsuits-exxon-chemrisk-dapl-climate-change-raskin/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">
</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/10/07/slapp-lawsuits-exxon-chemrisk-dapl-climate-change-raskin/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.desmog.com/2022/10/07/slapp-lawsuits-exxon-chemrisk-dapl-climate-change-raskin/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""> Emily SandersIn 2018, Krystal Two Bulls received notice that she was being sued for criminal conspiracy.Two Bulls, who is Oglala Lakota and North Cheyenne, has been organizing for environmental justice for much of her life. She was raised on the North Cheyenne Indian Reservation of Lame Deer, Montana, part of a community that had resisted coal developments for nearly 40 years. In 2016, she helped defeat Arch Coal’s plans to build a massive strip mining operation on the reservation’s border. The project would’ve been one of the largest coal mines in the United States. Later that same year, Two Bulls received an urgent call for assistance from land and water protectors at Standing Rock, North Dakota, who were working to oppose the construction of the <a href="https://www.desmog.com/energy-transfer-partners-bakken-oil-pipeline-through-iowa/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">Dakota Access pipeline</a>, which transports crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois.When Two Bulls arrived, the conflict between protestors and local police was escalating. Her auntie, Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, had <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/18/standing_rock_sioux_pediatrician_threat_from" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">recently been arrested</a> after standing in the path of a bulldozer set to dig up human remains at an ancestral burial site. Two Bulls spent three-and-a-half months supporting and sustaining the camp — handling basic logistics like providing protestors with food, warm clothing, and other necessities — all in the face of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/29/standing-rock-protest-north-dakota-shutdown-evacuation" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">violence</a> by state police. She then helped to launch the <a href="https://nodaplsolidarity.org/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">No DAPL Solidarity Campaign</a>, a global movement to back the Indigenous opposition to the pipeline. It wasn’t until a year after camp was shut down that Two Bulls, who came to North Dakota on her own dime and left in debt, found out she was being sued for millions of dollars by the pipeline developer, Energy Transfer Partners. The charges were brought under the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Practices (RICO) Act, a law originally designed to prosecute the mafia. The company claimed that through her “calls to action,” including a statement on Greenpeace’s website asking “all people from around the world to take action” and “come stand with us” against the Dakota Access pipeline, Two Bulls and others had conspired to interfere with Energy Transfer’s business operations and engaged in organized crime. The individuals and groups’ opposition, the company claimed, was defamatory and cost key investments in its pipeline.In 2017, The Intercept reported on documents leaked from former personnel at an international security firm, TigerSwan, revealing that Energy Transfer had <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/11/15/dakota-access-pipeline-dapl-tigerswan-energy-transfer-partners-rico-lawsuit/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">paid the firm</a> to use military-style surveillance and infiltration tactics to gather information that could be deployed in a RICO lawsuit against the anti-pipeline activists. Two Bulls is just one of many victims of the fossil fuel industry’s use of SLAPPs — strategic lawsuits against public participation — to silence and intimidate its critics. <a href="https://earthrights.org/publication/the-fossil-fuel-industrys-use-of-slapps-and-judicial-harassment-in-the-united-states/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">A report</a> released last month by legal advocacy nonprofit EarthRights International identified 152 instances of <a href="https://exxonknews.substack.com/p/steven-donziger-on-freedom-under" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">legal and judicial harassment</a> by fossil fuel corporations to suppress dissent in the United States over the past 10 years, including 93 SLAPP lawsuits. Just this week, a California oil industry trade association <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/california-oil-group-pays-fees-to-advocacy-groups-it-harassed-but-dodges-multimillion-dollar-judgment-2022-10-03/#.YzyAqGbeG24.twitter" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">paid nearly $650,000 in fees</a> to the city of Los Angeles and several environmental advocacy groups the company <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2017/04/03/youth-color-lawsuit-los-angeles-drilling-discrimination-oil-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">had targeted in court for years</a> following the city’s implementation of new environmental safety requirements for drilling applicants. After declaring bankruptcy, the California Independent Petroleum Association was allowed to pay only a fraction of a judgment initially awarded to the city and groups by a trial court that ruled the lawsuit was a SLAPP.“With the strengthening of our movements, the revelation of how long the fossil fuel industry has been aware of how their practices impact and contribute to climate change, and the rise of legal cases against oil and gas corporations, these companies are becoming more desperate to silence the voices of their critics,” said Deepa Padmanabha, deputy general counsel at Greenpeace USA.  A wide range of concerned groups, from community organizers to members of Congress, are taking up the fight against SLAPPs. Last month, the House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/legislation/hearings/free-speech-under-attack-part-iii-the-legal-assault-on-environmental-activists" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">held a hearing</a> to expose the fossil fuel industry’s use of SLAPPs and its backing of <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2017/12/11/alec-model-bill-pipeline-protesters/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">bills to criminalize protest</a>. The committee’s witnesses, including Padmanabha and others, explained that corporations were using these tactics to suppress activists’ ability to freely voice dissent.The day after the hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the subcommittee chairman, introduced the <a href="https://raskin.house.gov/cache/files/f/b/fbb6b8d1-fa69-4c17-adbb-6445ff63b8a0/291D1533375A72AC20E4EB67F9244109.bill-text---slapp-protection-act.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">SLAPP Protection Act of 2022</a> — the first federal legislation that would “establish a procedure to dismiss, punish, and deter strategic lawsuits against public participation.” Advocates say the bill could create a sorely needed protection for individuals and community groups who speak out against fossil fuel infrastructure, and an important safeguard for free speech at large.According to EarthRights International, the proposed legislation <a href="https://earthrights.org/an-in-depth-look-at-raskin-federal-anti-slapp-legislation/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">would provide</a> a federal mechanism for SLAPP suits to be quickly identified and dismissed while balancing the rights of plaintiffs and defendants. The bill would also force those bringing SLAPP suits to pay their opponents’ legal fees if the lawsuit is proven to have abusive intent. Advocacy organizations are also tackling the issue. EarthRights is a member of the <a href="https://protecttheprotest.org/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">Protect the Protest</a> coalition, an initiative created in response to the rise of SLAPP suits. “If a corporation can sue a nonprofit organization out of business for criticizing its activities, then that’s extremely dangerous,” Kirk Herbertson, senior policy advisor at EarthRights International, said. About a year after Energy Transfer filed its lawsuit against Two Bulls and others, a district court judge in North Dakota <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2019/02/14/energy-transfer-racketeering-claims-greenpeace-dakota-access-pipeline-dismissed/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">dismissed the case</a>, denying the RICO claims with prejudice — meaning the company could not refile those claims. RICO claims, which can triple the amount of damages sought in a SLAPP suit, can be financially devastating — even for a larger, well-resourced organization like Greenpeace USA, which was named in the original suit. While Energy Transfer’s RICO claims against the organization have been dismissed, the pipeline company filed a second lawsuit in North Dakota state court, which is scheduled for trial in June 2023. In its current case, which also names Two Bulls as a defendant, Energy Transfer argues that Greenpeace USA conspired with others to defame, trespass, and interfere with business relationships, among many other charges. Energy Transfer did not respond to a request for comment. “Companies are becoming more desperate to silence the voices of their critics”– Deepa PadmanabhaFighting these lawsuits not only takes vast amounts of money, but also time and energy. Padmanabha said that since mid-2016, her career has been almost entirely dedicated to advocating against corporate lawfare — corporations’ use of the legal system to attack opponents — preventing her from engaging more in the dire work needed to prevent climate catastrophe. “The next decade is so critical in our fight against climate change. And if we didn’t have to deal with these lawsuits, we would really be putting every penny and every minute we have into fighting the existential threat of climate change,” Padmanabha said, adding that they are also intended to intimidate and deter individuals and lesser-resourced, smaller groups from speaking out.Karen Savage was working in Massachusetts as a middle-school math teacher when she got hit with a SLAPP suit. In 2013, she and another environmental activist, Cherri Foytlin, wrote an <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chemrisk-bp-and-purple-st_b_4095131" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">unpaid article</a> for the Huffington Post about a so-called independent study from scientific consulting firm ChemRisk. The study had claimed that there was no connection between chemicals released during the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the serious health problems reported by cleanup workers and coastal residents in its aftermath. As their reporting revealed, ChemRisk — a company with a long history of working with polluters, including defendant PG&E in the infamous Erin Brockovich case — produced “science” on behalf of BP that the oil major could use to defend itself from liability in court.After the article was published, the Huffington Post <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/12/business/energy-environment/years-after-criticism-of-its-practices-science-consultant-pushes-back.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">received</a> an immediate request from the company to retract it, which they forwarded on to Cherri Foytlin. (In a note on her Facebook page, Foytlin told ChemRisk to “kiss my derriere.”)Foytlin’s Facebook post, along with many other social media posts from the two writers, appeared in a defamation suit filed against them by ChemRisk in New York state. The company claimed their article contained falsehoods — though, according to Savage, ChemRisk couldn’t explain what those falsehoods were — and that as long as it was kept online, the article would “continue to do substantial harm to ChemRisk’s reputation.” “Basically what they wanted to do was shut us up,” Savage told me. “It was an intimidation tactic.” With pro-bono representation, Savage and Foytlin were able to get the suit dismissed in New York. Within two weeks, the company refiled in Massachusetts, where Savage lived. At one point, she said, the company’s lawyers even attempted to serve her in her classroom while she was teaching.Cardno ChemRisk, the parent company of ChemRisk, did not respond to a request for comment.The case was eventually dismissed under the state’s anti-SLAPP laws, and ChemRisk was forced to pay Savage and Foytlin’s attorney’s fees. Savage said she believes that ChemRisk never sued them in Louisiana, where Foytlin lived, because of the three states, Louisiana’s anti-SLAPP laws were the strongest, and the suit would’ve been dismissed faster and with greater consequences for the company. That tactic of searching for the most favorable court, called forum shopping, is something Raskin’s anti-SLAPP statute would address by creating a standard applicable across the United States. At present, <a href="https://anti-slapp.org/your-states-free-speech-protection" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">32 states</a> and the District of Columbia have anti-SLAPP laws, yet they have varying degrees of efficacy. And while the fate of a federal bill could depend on the outcome of midterm elections, most state anti-SLAPP laws have passed with bipartisan support.Savage — who has since become a journalist and has<a href="https://www.desmog.com/2021/10/12/karen-savage-journalist-louisiana-trespassing-bayou-bridge/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;"> written for DeSmog</a> about being arrested by pipeline security while reporting — said she hopes Raskin’s bill would help put an end to this tactic. “If you know the truth, and you’ve got factual backup, and someone comes at you, you can’t back down on that,” Savage said. “The whole reason they’re coming at you is because they also know that you have the truth.”While the fossil fuel industry works to stamp out the speech of environmental advocates on the one hand, it is now arguing that its climate denial is protected speech on the other. At the same time that Raskin held his hearing into the fossil fuel industry’s assault on the First Amendment, the House Natural Resources Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held a separate hearing to examine how public relations firms market climate disinformation and delay action on behalf of Big Oil. In that hearing, chaired by Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), Republicans and their witness argued that the committee was attacking the corporations’ right to free speech. “Taken together, the two [hearings] are a perfect illustration of the industry’s First Amendment strategy: expand free speech for corporations, curb it for citizens,” Amy Westervelt recently <a href="https://theintercept.com/2022/09/16/fossil-fuel-industry-climate-free-speech/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">wrote</a> in The Intercept. The fossil fuel industry, she explained, has been developing the argument that its public statements on climate policy are protected speech since the late 1960s, all while working to expand the right of corporations to buy influence over politics behind the scenes.In a paradoxical twist, fossil fuel companies are even attempting to wield existing anti-SLAPP laws to shield themselves from legal accountability. After a Massachusetts court ruled that Attorney General Maura Healey’s climate fraud lawsuit against Exxon could proceed in state court, the oil giant told the state’s supreme court that the case was actually a conspiracy to silence Exxon’s views on climate policy in violation of the state’s anti-SLAPP statute. But so far, the idea that Exxon’s fraud is protected free speech <a href="https://exxonknews.substack.com/p/exxons-free-speech-defense-just-got?s=w" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; box-shadow: none;">has not gone over well with judges</a>. “We have seen that the industry is trying to build up this argument around a conspiracy against them, and it’s coming up in things like anti-SLAPP motions in courts. But they have continued to fail in that effort so far,” Herbertson of EarthRights International said. Raskin’s newly proposed federal legislation, he said, is clearly and explicitly designed to be used by real people and organizations that have been victim to SLAPP suits, and will be harder for corporations to use in their own defense.But if you ask Padmanabha of Greenpeace, the industry’s tactics are on thin ice. “There is this recognition and an increasing awareness that speech should not be bought,” she said. “And I think that the [Oversight Civil Rights and Civil Liberties] hearing and the bill that followed it are really just emblematic examples of how these attempts to control the narrative are crumbling.”Emily Sanders writes <a href="http://exxonknews.org/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">ExxonKnews</a>, a newsletter covering climate accountability and the oil and gas industry. She is editorial lead at the Center for Climate Integrity, and is based in New York City. This piece was co-published by <a href="https://www.desmog.com/" target="blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-wpel-link="internal" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">DeSmog</a> and <a href="http://exxonknews.org/" target="blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">ExxonKnews</a>, a project of the <a href="https://climateintegrity.org/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: none;">Center for Climate Integrity</a>.
ref 1<a href="https://www.desmog.com/2017/04/03/youth-color-lawsuit-los-angeles-drilling-discrimination-oil-industry/">https://www.desmog.com/2017/04/03/youth-color-lawsuit-los-angeles-drilling-discrimination-oil-industry/</a>apr 2017los Angeles is a <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/04/05/473107378/before-hollywood-the-oil-industry-made-la" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">city built on oil</a>, and even today more than a thousand derricks still pump it from the shallow reserves beneath the city. While some <a href="http://www.clui.org/newsletter/spring-2010/bus-tour-urban-crude" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">oil wells are camouflaged</a> behind colorfully painted towers or bland beige structures resembling office buildings, many of them draw up crude oil in the open, surprisingly close to homes, stores, restaurants, schools, and churches.“Every time I go to school,” 18-year-old Brandon Molina told DeSmog, “I walk by these oil drilling sites. They’re around my school. So, it’s something that I see every day.”In LA, the number of residents living less than a mile from an oil well is in the tens of thousands. But how close you live to a drilling site may depend on the color of your skin and socioeconomic status, placing communities of color disproportionately at risk, according to a lawsuit brought by three LA youth groups against the City of LA.And while the City took steps to address the complaints by amending its drilling application process and ultimately settled with the youth groups in September 2016, both parties are currently facing a counter lawsuit.This legal battle has been brought by a state-based oil and gas trade group, the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), which argues that after a judge granted it permission to participate in the youth lawsuit settlement discussions, it was allegedly blocked from doing so.<h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Youth of Color Take on Oil Drilling in LA</h3><div class="getty embed image" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; width: 594px; max-width: 594px;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">[pix oil by houses]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">
</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">molina is a freshman attending community college in the LA neighborhood of Wilmington. He is a youth organizer with one of the groups filing the original lawsuit, Youth for Environmental Justice, a program of the California-focused nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment.</div></div>These youth groups, which also include the South Central Youth Leadership Coalition and youth members of the Center for Biological Diversity, first filed suit against the City of LA in November 2015.The lawsuit claimed that the City’s pattern of reviewing — and “rubberstamping” — applications to open new oil wells and drill again in old ones was not only in violation of the <a href="https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/CEQA/Purpose" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)</a>, which requires environmental impact reviews and public input on projects which could cause environmental harm, it also unfairly put the health of communities of color at risk.Instead of each application undergoing a case-by-case review of the potential environmental, health, and safety impacts, the City of LA was regularly granting exemptions from these reviews “as rule of law,” according to Gladys Limón, an attorney for Communities for a Better Environment.And, as outlined in the lawsuit:<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Drilling sites in South Los Angeles and Wilmington — neighborhoods where the vast majority of residents are black and Latino — are on average hundreds of feet closer to schools, playgrounds, and parks than drilling sites in neighborhoods such as West Los Angeles and Wilshire with larger numbers of white residents.”</blockquote>Limón says that this information surfaced after communities in areas affected by expanded drilling activity started talking to each other and realized “the same sorts of patterns that they were experiencing were true for other communities.” At that point, her organization began digging through city files and investigating whether that might be the case.“Sure enough, these patterns did emerge,” Limón told DeSmog.And when the city placed certain conditions on the drilling activities, such as enclosing the derricks in sound-proof structures or using electric drilling rigs instead of more polluting diesel rigs, that’s when Limón says the pattern of discrimination arose. “We believe there were inferior conditions that were required in communities of color,” she said.<h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Getting to Know the Drill</h3>In Wilmington, near the community where Molina lives, a single drilling company, Warren E&P, opened 540 new oil wells in the last couple decades, and it’s not the only company operating there.The community is afflicted by one of the highest cancer rates in the southern part of the state. Oil and gas drilling is associated with pollution known to have numerous health impacts, ranging from asthma and headaches to a <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2017/02/23/study-finds-connection-between-oil-and-gas-development-and-childhood-leukemia" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">higher risk of cancer in children</a>. Some of these wells overlook a little league baseball field.Molina has a personal stake in how oil drilling happens in LA. Not only does it occur in his communities, but he has suffered from asthma since he was six years old, with several attacks severe enough to land him in the hospital. His experience learning about the drilling activities in his communities and being a part of the lawsuit fighting for stricter enforcement of protections surrounding those activities was empowering, a feeling he hopes to transfer to other people of color like him.“Not many people in our community know about the issue that we are facing,” Molina said. “Honestly, being part of this really did open my eyes to see what is going on in my community, and it made me feel even more motivated to do something for my community.”<h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">City Takes Closer Look at Drilling Applications</h3>On September 19, 2016, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning issued a memorandum amending the oil and gas drilling application process and setting new guidelines for the way it reviews those applications.The application now includes an environmental assessment form that Limón says should enable the Planning Department to evaluate potential environmental impacts of each project. The City says these moves are meant to bring it into line with state law.“We’re pleased to have worked with the community and Planning Department to advance environmental justice by better protecting the health of our residents near oil facilities,” Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement.These changes include expanded opportunities for public participation, and are an effort “to fully recognize that people living and working in proximity to oil and gas operations have a substantial interest in participating in the review process for these projects,” according to a statement from the City.<h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Oil Industry Follows (Law)Suit</h3>Sabrina Lockhart, communications director for CIPA, has a different take on the City’s memo. “It’s disappointing that the rules were created without input from the entities that must comply with them,” she told DeSmog.Lockhart says that the petroleum association believes the City’s new guidelines for drilling applications, issued a week and a half ahead of the City Council vote approving the settlement, were a condition of settling, and that CIPA’s only recourse for not having a say in those guidelines’ development was to sue both the City and youth groups.“Even though the settlement itself doesn’t name it, right at the same time the settlement was reached, the city announced these new regulations,” said Lockhart. “We are fighting in the courts because we believe that it unilaterally and improperly overrides state law.”Limón, however, considers the countersuit a retaliatory attempt to silence youth of color and “bully” the City. She also provided DeSmog court documents showing email exchanges between the youth groups’ lawyers and CIPA’s, inviting the petroleum association to discuss its position and potential settlement.“The oil industry is not used to communities of color standing up against policies and practice that one, give it free rein to pollute communities and two, challenge their profits,” said Limón. “In this case, the youth of color courageously challenged those practices and they prevailed.”CIPA does not appear to have accepted these offers to discuss settlement, instead pursuing legal actions attempting to access all previous information related to settlement discussions between the City and youth groups.So far, the courts have not granted CIPA this request and are currently examining whether its suit could be considered retaliatory under state law.Meanwhile, Molina continues to walk past oil derricks on his way to community college in Wilmington. He described the countersuit by the petroleum association as “just wrong.”“That is another thing that just opened my eyes to see how the world works,” he said.---ref 2<div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin-right: -15px; margin-left: -15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="col bodytext" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 800px; padding-right: 15px; padding-left: 15px; flex-basis: 0px; flex-grow: 1; max-width: 100%; line-height: 20px; margin-top: 30px;">For Immediate Release, October 3, 2022<div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><table width="100%" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 770px;"><tbody style="box-sizing: border-box;"><tr style="box-sizing: border-box;"><td valign="top" class="bodytext" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; width: 55px; vertical-align: top; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px;">Contact:</td><td valign="top" class="bodytext" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; vertical-align: top;">Maya Golden-Krasner, Center for Biological Diversity, (213) 215-3729, mgoldenkrasner@biologicaldiversity.org Nalleli Cobo, South Central Youth Leadership Coalition, nallelicobo@gmail.com Alison Hahm, Youth for Environmental Justice, (310) 694-4551, ahahm@cbecal.org</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div align="center" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: center;">California Oil Group Pays Fees to Advocacy Groups It Harassed, But Dodges Multimillion Dollar Judgment</div></div></div><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin-right: -15px; margin-left: -15px;"><div class="col bodytext" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 800px; padding-right: 15px; padding-left: 15px; flex-basis: 0px; flex-grow: 1; max-width: 100%; line-height: 20px;"><div class="block-paragraph" style="box-sizing: border-box;">LOS ANGELES— The California Independent Petroleum Association, an oil industry trade association, paid the city of Los Angeles, Youth for Environmental Justice, South Central Youth Leadership Coalition, and the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Center for Biological Diversity</a> nearly $650,000 as part of a bankruptcy reorganization plan today, after years of litigation.The bankruptcy allowed the petroleum association to avoid paying in full a court-ordered $2.3 million <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/los-angeles-court-makes-oil-industry-pay-over-2-million-for-retaliatory-lawsuit-2021-07-08/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">judgment</a> for bringing a retaliatory SLAPP suit — “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” — against the groups and the city. The SLAPP suit forced the groups into years of unnecessary litigation until a judge determined that the suit was intended to harass the groups after they won neighborhood oil drilling protections in Los Angeles in 2015.The petroleum association’s members have included oil giants Chevron, Aera Energy and California Resources Corporation.On Sept. 20, a California bankruptcy court approved the final plan under which the groups received a fraction of the judgment awarded by the trial court.“The idea that Big Oil can’t afford to pay its due judgment to kids and conservationists is a bad punchline to a terrible joke,” said Maya Golden-Krasner, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Climate Law Institute</a>. “Justice would have the industry ponying up the millions it owes for harassing and intimidating youth groups fighting for clean air. But greasing the legal system to avoid penalties is about as predictable as the climate damage from their dirty fossil fuels.”“No matter what small fraction they’re paying us, the oil industry’s intimidation tactics failed,” said Nalleli Cobo, co-founder of the South Central Youth Leadership Coalition. “People power is winning in California. We’re ready to get on with protecting communities from toxic oil pollution."In 2015 the groups <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2015/los-angeles-oil-drilling-11-06-2015.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">sued the city of Los Angeles</a> for rubber-stamping oil projects in communities of color. Both sides reached a settlement in 2016 after the city adopted new requirements for drilling applications to protect vulnerable communities and ensure compliance with state environmental review rules.The petroleum association sued the city and youth and environmental groups and forced years of litigation over a baseless SLAPP suit. In 2019 a California appeals court dismissed the petroleum association’s suit as a meritless attack on the groups, leading to the judgment that the association must pay the legal fees the groups incurred fighting it. A judge determined in July 2021 that the suit was intended to harass the groups after they won neighborhood oil drilling protections in Los Angeles.“The industry should pay for the bullying that landed them in trouble,” said Alison Hahm, an attorney at <a href="https://www.cbecal.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Communities for a Better Environment</a>’s Youth for Environmental Justice. “There’s something wrong with bankruptcy law that shields well-resourced private interests from responsibility, shifting financial burdens to communities already harmed by polluters and lobbyists. We’ll continue to fight for a safer, healthier future without fossil fuels.”Despite its bankruptcy, the petroleum association has continued to spend <a href="https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Lobbying/Employers/Detail.aspx?id=1146650&session=2021&view=activity" rel="nofollow noopener" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box;">hundreds of thousands</a> on lobbying this year to oppose legislation aimed at protecting communities from oil industry pollution.The petroleum association supported a referendum in Ventura County to overturn a law that would have increased environmental oversight of oil and gas drilling. An association board member is behind a statewide <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjA_Ynv-qb6AhWUHzQIHcsXCzoQFnoECAUQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Foag.ca.gov%2Fsystem%2Ffiles%2Finitiatives%2Fpdfs%2F22-0006%2520%2528Referendum%2520of%2520SB%25201137%2529.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1ICTJd8J6GogtzrRIOyCUX" rel="nofollow noopener" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box;">referendum</a> to try to repeal S.B. 1137, California’s landmark legislation <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/california-lawmakers-ok-climate-package-with-buffer-zones-carbon-capture-2022-08-31/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">establishing</a> setbacks that would prohibit new permits for oil activities within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals and other sensitive sites.</div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">recall exxon busted (UK?) and promised to stop funding denial so shift to buffer/front/trade:</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://climateinvestigations.org/exxon-and-friends-still-funding-climate-denial-and-obstruction-through-ipaa-fti-energy-in-depth" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://climateinvestigations.org/exxon-and-friends-still-funding-climate-denial-and-obstruction-through-ipaa-fti-energy-in-depth </a></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">many docs grafs</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Internal documents and conversations from the fracking lobby, revealed this week in HuffPost, shine new light on a ten year old public relations campaign front group called Energy In Depth. Documents show this front group is designed explicitly to exist without the fingerprints of its fossil fuel funders, giving the oil industry the “ability to say, do and write things that individual company employees cannot and should not.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This reporting reveals how climate denial remains a key oil industry strategy in spite of their efforts to clean up their image. These shrouded attacks on climate science and solutions, attacks on lawmakers, scientists, lawyers and advocates stand in stark contrast to the seemingly desperate efforts of Exxon and their brethren to retain ‘social license’, gain credibility on climate change and distance themselves from their legacy of climate science denial.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Let’s define “climate denial” up front, as we did years ago in a Guardian interview for a story about Edelman PR: “Our definition of denial is anyone who is obstructing, delaying or trying to derail policy steps that are in line with the scientific consensus that says we need to take rapid steps to decarbonize the economy.” Simple enough. It goes beyond just denying that global warming exists.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HuffPost’s reporting shows that Exxon is a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), an oil and gas industry trade association whose online assets include “news” sites like Energy In Depth (EID) that spew climate denial and attacks on scientists, journalists, advocates, and lawyers. IPAA acts as a pass through, bundling corporate members’ cash that’s funneled to the firm FTI Consulting, which created and manages sites like EID. An ExxonMobil spokesperson, responding to questions from the HuffPost reporter, tried valiantly to keep the veil in place, saying, “Your questions are better addressed to EID or IPAA.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">IPAA’s long history of denial</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">The IPAA has a long history of funding and proliferating misinformation on climate change, a legacy that continues to the this day. IPAA was named as a potential funder of the infamous multi-million dollar “uncertainty” campaign detailed in the 1998 Global Climate Science Communications Plan, an effort organized by API, Exxon, Chevron, Southern Company and assorted libertarian extremists. You can find that file and others in our ClimateFiles collection.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">POTENTIAL FUNDING FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE SCIENCE COMMUNICATIONS (p. 8)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Potential funding sources were identified as American Petroleum Institute (API) and its members; Business Round Table (BRT) and its members, Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and its members; Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and its members; and the National Mining Association (NMA) and its members. - Potential fund allocators were identified as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), Competitive Enterprise Institute, Frontiers of Freedom and the Marshall Institute.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[View entire document on DocumentCloud]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The IPAA fact sheet on Climate Change released that same year has some pretty alarming climate denial claims — some even more extreme than the Global Climate Coalition was pushing at the time, and includes references to Fred Singer’s Leipzig Declaration and the Imperial Oil DRI/McGraw Hill study on carbon taxes. IPAA also blame termites and volcanoes — basically everything but fossil fuels — for altering the atmosphere more than fossil fuels:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">“Consider this: the largest source of greenhouse gas may be termites, whose digestive activities are responsible for 10 times more production of CO2 than burning fossil fuels.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">“So, since human-related CO2 is only a small portion of total atmospheric CO2, measures taken to limit it will have little or no measurable effect on overall emissions into the atmosphere. More importantly, there is still no evidence that CO2 emissions are warming the earth’s atmosphere. And we have no proof that man’s impact makes a difference at all.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By 2008, the IPAA had a more nuanced fact sheet on climate change, but still emphasized uncertainty and denial,</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“…no climate change policy action should discard the question of science. Too often, recent arguments for action discard the uncertainties of today’s understanding of global climate science. Global climate science is an emerging field, one that changes as the tools to model it improve.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They know better…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">The Washington Post revealed that in a June, 2019 presentation at an IPAA meeting, influential energy lawyer Mark Barron said the “ship has sailed” on using climate science denial as the first line of defense. Instead, Barron advocated lobbying Congress for climate legislation that benefits the oil and gas industry. He drew a sharp contrast between the industry’s former attacks on climate science and a more recent nuanced approach. He told the oil and gas executives and lobbyists gathered at the meeting sponsored by fracking giants Halliburton, Schlumberger and Oxy that they should be ready to talk about global warming, as long as they position fossil fuels as the solution. Despite this, HuffPost reporting shows that Barron’s audience, the IPAA and its members, are still deploying on climate denial and attacks on scientists through projects like EID and other web organs.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Funding Front Groups – FTI and Energy In Depth</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">IPAA describes Energy in Depth as the industry’s lead “rapid response platform” for the fracking industry. IPAA created Energy in Depth (EID) shortly after the environmental impacts from the fracking boom began to make national headlines. IPAA member Exxon/XTO was one of EID’s first funders.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Internal IPAA Board documents, published by HuffPost, describe the purpose of the project:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The main focus of EID has evolved into addressing the “Keep It In The Ground” movement.” (Keep it In The Ground refers to activists and scientists working to keep new fossil fuels from being extracted and burned, commensurate with the conclusion by international scientists that we simply cannot burn even a percentage of known and potential fossil fuel reserves if we want to keep global temperatures from rising to dangerous levels.)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Funding for EID comes directly from unnamed oil and gas corporations like Exxon, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Oxy, Marathon Oil, and is funneled through IPAA, which funds the Energy in Depth project on an annual basis.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According IPAA budget documents, the EID campaign costs more than $2 million dollars per year, representing about one fifth of IPAA’s total budget, second only to “Salaries and Benefits” in scale.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BIG QUESTION: What puzzles us is how IPAA is classifying this expense to the IRS. This $2M plus annual payment to FTI does not appear, as required by law, on the IRS 990 form filed by IPAA under “Independent Contractors” “that received more than $100,000 in compensation from the organization.” (see Part VII Section B on page 8 of 2017 990). Perhaps IPAA can provide an explanation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">IPAA 2017 990 Independent Contractors Page 8</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The real story of Energy In Depth</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Colleagues at DeSmog have been watching Energy in Depth from the beginning, when it was launched to blunt attention to the rapid spread of fracking ten years ago and concerns from community members, lawmakers, journalists and activists.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">IPAA’s Jeff Eshelman, described the genesis and purpose of the group in a 2017 IPAA retreat:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The IPAA funding of over $2M a year to FTI/Energy in Depth is spent on five sub-campaigns, meant to undermine the public’s understanding and support of climate and environmental protections:  </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">EID Climate exists “to counteract the “Keep it in the Ground” movement’s newsiest strategy to use climate change as a weapon to silence dissent and shut down American energy production”. The website pushes back on litigation against oil and gas companies.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">EID Health is a “rapid response program” to counter studies linking oil and gas drilling and production to health impacts. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">Endangered Species Watch is meant to blunt the Federal Endangered Species Act and is described as “disseminating news, regulations and issue alerts to member companies, affiliated industries and policy makers.” </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Energy Tax Facts defends tax subsidies for the fossil fuel industry</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign advocates against movements asking Universities and pension funds to divest from fossil fuels.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FTI has carved out a specialty in aggressive attacks on foes of the oil and gas industry, doing the dirty work that oil corporations would not want their brands tied to in public. An FTI “Techical Paper” report presented at a 2014 Brazilian oil industry conference describes Energy in Depth’s purpose pretty bluntly, stating that the web asset provides the “ability to say, do and write things that individual company employees cannot and should not.” (emphasis added)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The actual work of running EID is contracted out by IPAA to FTI Consulting, a massive global PR and consulting firm. Here are a few individuals we know are connected to the Energy In Depth project and have written themselves into the wrong side of history:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">Matt Dempsey, a Managing Director at FTI, manages Energy in Depth and lists himself as an editorial editor WesternWire, another front group run for Western Energy Alliance, another oil trade association like IPAA. Dempsey and a colleague were recently recorded by a lawyer for EarthRights International who called them out for being agents of Exxon, and pretending to be journalists. Exxon is a defendant in the Boulder Colorado lawsuit that EID and WesternWire have tried hard to malign. Dempsey used to work for Senator James Inhofe.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Steve Everley, is an FTI Managing Director of Strategic Communications and a senior advisor on the Energy In Depth project. Inside Climate News ran a lengthy rebuttal to the work Everley did to trash their actual journalism on fracking in 2014.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Spencer Walrath, who is actually an FTI employee (Director, Energy & Natural Resources at FTI Consulting Inc) but pretends to be an journalist on Energy In Depth. He graduated University of Northern Iowa in 2012. Spencer’s FTI job was announced in his college newsletter.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Katie Brown, PhD, who now works for FTI out of Belgium was a major part of Energy in Depth while working for FTI in Washington DC until a couple years ago. This archived 45 slide Powerpoint presentation from 2014 by Brown lays out the IPAA-FTI-EID connection and details all their work to undermine regulations on ozone, groundwater protection, methane emissions and more. (Brown’s PhD is in English, btw and she is or was working on a book on James Joyce…congratulations, but how does that PhD apply to an energy front group website besides using good grammar?)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More EID denial</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FTI’s Energy in Depth Climate front group spends most of its pixels trying to trash climate lawsuits, promoting natural gas as a climate solution, and attacking science implicating methane’s role in climate change. Methane, a super greenhouse gas and the main component of “natural gas”, leaks from fracking fields in vast quantities making the current natural gas supply much dirtier fuel than it used to be before fracking became a thing. This point was recently illustrated nicely with FLIR images by the New York Times, and news of this Exxon gas well leak which released more methane in a few weeks than many countries emit in a year.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Each of the EID sub-campaigns employ tactics common to climate deniers, like attacking climate models, denying the impact of methane from fracking, repeating debunked myths about a global pause in warming, and claiming that “one in six climate and earth scientists” think human’s impact on climate change is “little or none.”</div><div style="">Most recently, Spencer Walrath wrote a piece in EID going after a peer reviewed scientific study on ocean acidification and the companies connected to the carbon dioxide that has acidified the ocean, the science of which is even harder to deny than climate change.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">And this post by Katie Brown, PhD at EID uses sham science and Wikipedia links to attack calls for accountability for companies like Exxon.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">EID “Experts”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On the EID Climate website, the list of experts includes people like Craig Richardson, president of the coal-funded, climate-denying Energy and Environment Legal Institute. Richardson has called climate change a communist plot.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Other experts include Horace Cooper, who is listed as a senior fellow the National Center for Public Policy Research an organization that has received $445,000 in grants from Exxon over the past two decades including several grants earmarked for climate work.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">NCPPR CLIMATE GRANT (p. 44)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">View entire document on DocumentCloud]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cooper is also a Fellow with the preeminent climate science denial group the Heartland Institute. Heartland has held a number of gatherings dedicated to outright climate science denial. Heartland was also heavily funded by Exxon until they dropped them after 2006. The Mercer Family stepped in in 2008 and has given Heartland upwards of $6.7M from 2008-2017. In 2018, this grant appears to have been moved through Donors Trust.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FTI work for other industries with legal and political problems</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2019, court documents revealed FTI was running opportunities for Monsanto on RoundUp and GMO fights, alternately posing as journalists and attacking journalists, complete with an FTI campaign spreadsheet of steps taken to undermine and intimidate journalist Carey Gillam.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Most recently, FTI produced a report on health care for a front group attacking “Medicare for All” proposals by politicians.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">IPAA Lobbying With Climate Denial Under Trump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">IPAA is a significant lobbying arm of the oil industry, spending 1.4 million on lobbying in 2018. Freedom of Information Act requests have revealed emails from IPAA lobbyists to key political appointees in the Department of Interior, showing an ignorance of basic climate change information and a willingness to disregard climate science when it gets in the way of oil and gas production.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In one set of emails, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald asked DOI appointees to reduce protections on an endangered species of beetle. A key reason IPAA protested the beetle’s protected status? – because its projected decline was based in part on climate change science. McDonald directly questioned the viability of climate change models, but not before admitting she is “not too familiar” with the 30 year old UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). As proof that the preeminent scientific body studying climate change in the world could not be trusted, she cited a Google search and a random Forbes article. MacDonald wrote to DOI appointee Vincent DeVito in 2017:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“All modeling is done using the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. While I am not too familiar with this organization or their work, I did some searching and found this Forbes article discrediting the IPCC, citing irresponsible science practices (intentionally manipulating data, suppressing legitimate opposing arguments, etc.). This may be something to look into and push back on, since most of the climate changes threat analysis in the SSA is based on this work.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">IPAA ON IPCC (p. 214)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">View entire document on DocumentCloud]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In spite of her lack of science background, IPAA’s McDonald would go on to testify on endangered species law, and the beetle would eventually be “downlisted” by the Trump administration as reported by the Washington Post.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In sum, the Energy In Depth project is entirely consistent with the 30 year campaign (or back to the 1940s…see CIEL’s Smoke and Fumes) by the oil industry to avoid being regulated for environmental harm caused by their products – climate change, air and water pollution. This covert effort contradicts oil industry leaders’ anxious attempts to portray a greener, climate friendly business model in recent years. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We can see right through it, but the aim is clear. Between Barron, the lawyer’s comments and IPAA’s front group Energy In Depth, the fossil fuel industry clearly is trying to play it both ways – opposing climate action while pushing natural gas as a solution and trying to benefit from whatever climate policies do come to pass and keep drilling away unchecked. All the while refusing to treat the global climate crisis like the real and present danger that it is. While IPAA lobbyists may try to play good cop in meetings on the Hill, they are actually leaning on old fashioned attacks on science to delay and distort any serious attempt to address climate change. </div></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> = </div></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://grist.org/politics/more-hill-staff-go-on-to-lobby-for-the-oil-industry-because-this-is-how-politics-works/">https://grist.org/politics/more-hill-staff-go-on-to-lobby-for-the-oil-industry-because-this-is-how-politics-works/</a></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style=""><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More Hill staff go on to lobby for the oil industry, because this is how politics works</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Relationships are the name of the game. And Big Oil knows how to play the game.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Philip Bump</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jan 15, 2013</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">lend me a lobbyist</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Here’s more of this nonsense. From The Hill:</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) has hired a pair of House GOP staffers to promote oil-and-gas development in Western states and the Gulf of Mexico.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The industry lobbying group said Tuesday that it’s expanding its government affairs staff by adding Mallori McClure, who was an aide to Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), and Samantha McDonald, who worked for Rep. John Fleming (R-La.).</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Mallori’s and Samantha’s experience on Capitol Hill, both advising legislators who not only sat on the House Natural Resources Committee, but who represent important energy-producing states primes them perfectly to advocate for America’s independent oil and natural gas producers inside the Beltway,” said IPAA President Barry Russell in a statement.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="">Bullshit. Mallori and Samantha’s relationships on Capitol Hill prime them perfectly to advocate for the industry with their friends and former associates.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A 2010 report found that three out of every four oil industry lobbyists had previously worked for the government.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Even considering the generally friendly relationship between K Street and Capitol Hill, the number of well-connected oil lobbyists is remarkable. The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics calculates that fewer than one in three registered lobbyists in 2009 had revolving-door connections — less than half the oil industry rate found by The Post.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Officials with the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit group that tracks Interior Department officials who cross over to the oil sector, said they were surprised by the findings. “With these numbers, you can see how the revolving door between the Hill and industry allowed problems in the agency to happen and not be addressed,” said Mandy Smithberger, an investigator for the group.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="">The Independent Petroleum Association of America is one of 195 organizations and companies lobbying on oil issues. The oil and gas industry employs 736 lobbyists. In 2012, those lobbyists have cost their clients $103 million. That is more than eight times the amount spent by environmental advocates in 2011.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And that explains that.</div></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">ggl 5 22</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Samantha McDonald - Kanner & Associates, LLC - LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com › samantha-mcdonald-3a57718</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Washington, District of Columbia, United States · Vice President · Kanner & Associates, LLC</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Experience ; Vice President. Kanner & Associates, LLC. Apr 2022 - Present2 months ; Legislative Affairs Director. NRECA. Aug 2018 - Apr 2022 3 years 9 months.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">LI  Samantha McDonald </div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Experience</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Kanner & Associates, LLC logo</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Vice PresidentVice President</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Kanner & Associates, LLC · Full-timeKanner & Associates, LLC · Full-time</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Apr 2022 - Present · 2 mosApr 2022 - Present · 2 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Washington DC-Baltimore AreaWashington DC-Baltimore Area</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">NRECA logo</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Legislative Affairs DirectorLegislative Affairs Director</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">NRECANRECA</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Aug 2018 - Apr 2022 · 3 yrs 9 mosAug 2018 - Apr 2022 · 3 yrs 9 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Arlington, VAArlington, VA</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Independent Petroleum Association of America - IPAA logo</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Independent Petroleum Association of AmericaIndependent Petroleum Association of America</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">5 yrs 5 mos5 yrs 5 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Director, Government RelationsDirector, Government Relations</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Apr 2015 - Aug 2018 · 3 yrs 5 mosApr 2015 - Aug 2018 · 3 yrs 5 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Manager, Government AffairsManager, Government Affairs</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Apr 2013 - Apr 2015 · 2 yrs 1 moApr 2013 - Apr 2015 · 2 yrs 1 mo</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Washington D.C. Metro AreaWashington D.C. Metro Area</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">U.S. House of Representatives logo</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">U.S. House of RepresentativesU.S. House of Representatives</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">5 yrs 8 mos5 yrs 8 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Legislative Assistant for Congressman John FlemingLegislative Assistant for Congressman John Fleming</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">May 2010 - Jan 2013 · 2 yrs 9 mosMay 2010 - Jan 2013 · 2 yrs 9 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Policy Areas: Natural Resources Committee, Energy, Agriculture, Trade, Small Biz, Social Security, Education, Budget, Telecom, and Judiciary.Policy Areas: Natural Resources Committee, Energy, Agriculture, Trade, Small Biz, Social Security, Education, Budget, Telecom, and Judiciary.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Legislative Coorespondent for Rep. Steve KingLegislative Coorespondent for Rep. Steve King</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mar 2009 - May 2010 · 1 yr 3 mosMar 2009 - May 2010 · 1 yr 3 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Scheduler for Rep. Steve KingScheduler for Rep. Steve King</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Apr 2008 - Apr 2009 · 1 yr 1 moApr 2008 - Apr 2009 · 1 yr 1 mo</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Scheduler for Rep. John PetersonScheduler for Rep. John Peterson</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Jun 2007 - Apr 2008 · 11 mosJun 2007 - Apr 2008 · 11 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Campaign Intern at NEPA HeadquartersCampaign Intern at NEPA Headquarters</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Rick Santorum for SenateRick Santorum for Senate</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Sep 2006 - Nov 2006 · 3 mosSep 2006 - Nov 2006 · 3 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Intern for Deputy Billy Timmins, (Fine Gael, Co. Wicklow)Intern for Deputy Billy Timmins, (Fine Gael, Co. Wicklow)</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">House of the Oireachtais, Irish ParliamentHouse of the Oireachtais, Irish Parliament</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Jan 2005 - Apr 2005 · 4 mosJan 2005 - Apr 2005 · 4 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">U.S. House of Representatives logo</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Intern for Rep. Don Sherwood (PA-10)Intern for Rep. Don Sherwood (PA-10)</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">U.S. House of RepresentativesU.S. House of Representatives</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">May 2004 - Jul 2004 · 3 mos</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">people also viewed</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Marty Kanner  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">President at Kanner & Associates, LLC</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Message</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Ryan Berger  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Experienced government relations and political consultant serving as Principal at Navigators Global.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Message</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Katie Culleton  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Legislative Affairs Director for Broadband and Telecommunications at NRECA</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Message</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Judy Schurke  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">--</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Message</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Bridgette Bourge, PMP  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Senior Director, Cybersecurity at APPA</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Message</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">David A. Ditch  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Message</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Barbara Smith  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Deputy Assistant Administrator for Southeastern and Southwestern Power Administrations</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Message</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Janelle Lemen  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Sr. Principal, Environmental Issues at National Rural Electric Cooperative Association</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Emily Lemei  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Customer Programs Manager & Regulatory Affairs at Northern California Power Agency</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Toni J.  3rd degree connection3rd</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Procurement Manager: International</div><div>
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</div></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">IPAA's Samantha McDonald Oral Testimony at the ...https://www.ipaa.org › ipaa-samantha-mcdonald-oral-te...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Apr 25, 2017 IPAA's Samantha McDonald Oral Testimony at the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Missing: lobbyist ‎| Must include: lobbyist</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">More Hill staff go on to lobby for the oil industry, because this ...https://grist.org › politics › more-hill-staff-go-on-to-lob...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Jan 15, 2013 — The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) has hired a pair of House GOP ... and Samantha McDonald, who worked for Rep.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Independent Petroleum Association of America - Money Trails  https://moneytrails.org › independent-petroleum-associa...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">[Reveal News, 03/23/19]; IPAA Has Spent $1.3 Million Lobbying Interior ... On June 21, 2017, Samantha McDonald, the Director of Government Relations for the ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Report: Full analysis of oil and gas industry communication ...https://westernvaluesproject.org › industry-communicati...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Feb 19, 2018 — On June 21, 2017, Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) lobbyist Samantha McDonald emailed Interior's Deputy Director, ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Samantha McDonald - Kanner & Associates LLC (April 2022 ...https://www.legistorm.com › Samantha_Barrett_McDonald</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">See more about Samantha McDonald including contact information, congressional salary, employment history, education, lobbying records, family relationships ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Missing: IPAA ‎| Must include: IPAA</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Attacks on Science - Page 56 - Google Books Resulthttps://books.google.com › books</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">2021 · ‎Young Adult Nonfiction</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">IPAA Lobbying with Climate Denial Under Trump IPAA is a significant lobbying arm of the ... In one set of emails, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald asked DOI ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Capital Eye Opener, Jan. 16: Oil Group Hires Hill Staffers ...https://www.opensecrets.org › news › 2013/01 › capital...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Jan 16, 2013 — ... of America has hired Mallori McClure and Samantha McDonald, ... Why might these two Republicans be good targets for the IPAA?</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">15 times former clients of the acting Interior secretary got favorable ...https://www.kbzk.com › cnn-us-politics › 2019/03/05 › 1...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In July and August 2017, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald emailed an Interior staffer about the agency issuing new guidance on maps related to sage grouse ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Trump opens sage grouse habitat to oil and gas drilling - KBZKhttps://www.kbzk.com › cnn-us-politics › 2019/03/15</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mar 15, 2019 — In July and August 2017, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald emailed an Interior staffer about the agency issuing new guidance on maps related ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Trump opens sage grouse habitat to oil and gas drillinghttps://m.cnn.com › article</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mar 15, 2019 — In July and August 2017, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald emailed an Interior staffer about the agency issuing new guidance on maps related ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">15 times former clients of the acting Interior secretary ... - CNN  https://www.cnn.com › david-bernhardt-interior-oil-and-gas</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mar 5, 2019 — In July and August 2017, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald emailed an Interior staffer about the agency issuing new guidance on maps related ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Egged on by industry lobbyists, Interior Dept. weakens bird ...https://revealnews.org › article › egged-on-by-industry-...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mar 15, 2018 — Samantha McDonald, the trade group's government relations director, asked Timothy Williams, deputy director of the department's office of ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Missing: IPAA ‎| Must include: IPAA</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Exxon and Friends Still Funding Climate Denial and ...https://climateinvestigations.org › exxon-and-friends-sti...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Dec 20, 2019 — Internal documents and conversations from the fracking lobby, ... In one set of emails, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald asked DOI appointees ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Bernhardt Buddies: Conflicts of Interest Abound at Trump's ...https://www.citizen.org › wp-content › uploadsPDF</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Jan 15, 2020 — than $1 million on lobbying since the Trump administration began, ... In one e-mail, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald requested a call with ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">20 pages</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Lobbying Directory - CA.govhttps://prd.cdn.sos.ca.gov › Lobbying_DirectoryPDF</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">MC DONALD, TOM. (202) 467-8812. 1909 K STREET NW, SUITE 900. WASHINGTON, DC 20006. Lobbying Firm. VORYS, SATER, SEYMOUR AND PEASE LLP. MC DOWELL, PEARSE D.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Tate Bennett, Sixth Interim Production, Sierra Club v EPA (3 ...https://www.epa.gov › files › s.c.-bennett-final6.pdfPDF</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mar 13, 2019 — Cc: Samantha McDonald <smcdonald ipa="ipa" wrg="wrg">; Bennett, Tate ... IPAA HOLDS LOBBYING EVENT AT TRUMP HOTEL: The Independent Petroleum ...</smcdonald></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Political Appointees Interior Secretary David… - Documented  https://documented.net › Reporting</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">On Wednesday, March 29th, 2017, Samantha Macdonald, Director of Government ... Cimarex's lobbyists at IPAA went directly to Kate MacGregor and Kathy ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">We can protect wildlife without holding industry hostage  https://thehill.com › opinion › energy-environment › 3...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">May 10, 2018 — by Tim Charters and Samantha McDonald, opinion contributors - 05/10/18 5:30 ... After years of lobbying, coercing and influencing the Obama ...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</div><div>
</div></div><div>=
<div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/leaked-audio-exposes-oil-and-gas-execs-laughing-with-joy-over-cozy-access-to-trump-officials/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/leaked-audio-exposes-oil-and-gas-execs-laughing-with-joy-over-cozy-access-to-trump-officials/</a></div><div>
</div><div>A  newly-leaked audio recording reveals that oil and gas executives in a private meeting were “giddy” with laughter in the summer of 2017 as they rejoiced over the “unprecedented access” they were being given to the highest levels of the Trump administration, boasting about their ability to have closed-door meetings with top officials and the ascendance of their own industry colleagues to some of the most powerful seats of government.</div><div class="p1_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Among the topics in the recording, <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/behind-trumps-energy-dominance-rebroadcast/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reports</a> Reveal at the Center for Investigative Reporting—which was provided the audio—the oil and gas executives who belong to the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) “are heard discussing David Bernhardt, now deputy secretary of the Interior and a former industry lobbyist.” Notably, Bernhardt—described by the executives in the recording as a close friend and industry operative—has now been nominated by President Trump to be the next Secretary of Interior, with his confirmation hearings scheduled for next week.<div class="p2_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lance Williams, a senior reporter for Reveal, detailed the contents of the recorded June 2017 meeting, which took place inside a Ritz-Carlton hotel conference room in Southern California, with an extensive piece for Politico‘s weekend magazine <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/23/trump-big-oil-industry-influence-investigation-zinke-226106?cid=apn" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">published</a> Saturday. Williams said the “recording gives a rare look behind the curtain of an influential oil industry lobbying group” congratulating itself on their political fortunes under a friendly administration.<div class="p3_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Williams reports:<div class="p4_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="background: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;">Dan Naatz, the association’s political director, told the conference room audience of about 100 executives that Bernhardt’s new role meant their priorities would be heard at the highest levels of Interior.<div class="p5_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“We know him very well, and we have direct access to him, have conversations with him about issues ranging from federal land access to endangered species, to a lot of issues,” Naatz said, according to an hourlong recording…<div class="p6_20" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div></blockquote>To a room full of laughter, IPAA’s CEO Barry Russell in the recording described one meeting with Scott Pruitt, the president’s EPA administrator at the time. What was expected to be a simple meet-and-greet, Russell explained, quickly became a friendly opportunity for the fellow industry insiders to provide Pruitt with a wish list for deregulation and agency rule changes. “What was really great is there was about four or five EPA staffers there, who were all like, ‘Write that down, write that down,’ all the way through this,” Russell stated. “And when we left, I said that was just our overview.”<div class="p7_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Russell, with the room reportedly still laughing, subsequently bragged: “It’s really a new world for us and very, very helpful.”<div class="p8_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Specifically, the IPAA and other allies were holding meetings during that period with the Interior Department, the EPA, and other agencies to reduce regulations on fracking, public lands restoration, methane restrictions, and species protection. From Politico:<div class="p9_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;">At the meeting, the association’s leaders distributed a private “regulatory update” memo that detailed environmental laws and rules that it hoped to blunt or overturn. The group ultimately got its way on four of the five high-profile issues that topped its wish list.<div class="p10_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Trump himself was <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-promoting-energy-independence-economic-growth/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a driving force</a> behind deregulating the energy industry, ordering the government in 2017 to weed out federal rules “that unnecessarily encumber energy production.” In a <a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/so_3349-american_energy_independence.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2017 order</a>, Zinke called for his deputy secretary—Bernhardt—to make sure the department complied with Trump’s regulatory rollbacks.<div class="p11_20" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div></blockquote>The leaked recording comes in the wake of reporting by journalist Andrew Perez of Maplight on Friday <a href="https://maplight.org/story/interior-nominee-and-his-lobbying-firm-have-donated-almost-1-million-to-senators/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">revealed</a> that Bernhardt and the lobbying firm he once worked for, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, have donated almost a million dollars over the last five years to the very senators who will soon vote on his confirmation.<div class="p12_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://maplight.org/story/interior-nominee-and-his-lobbying-firm-have-donated-almost-1-million-to-senators/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">According</a> to Perez:<div class="p13_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;">A MapLight review of campaign finance data found that Bernhardt, Brownstein Hyatt employees and the firm’s political action committee contributed more than $225,000 to members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee between 2013 and 2018. The panel will hold a hearing on his nomination next week.<div class="p14_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The firm and its employees also donated more than $960,000 to current members of the Senate, who will cast the final vote on Bernhardt’s confirmation.<div class="p15_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Colorado’s senators, Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Cory Gardner, were the top recipients of cash from Brownstein Hyatt, which has a major lobbying presence in Denver. The third-biggest haul went to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Bennet voted to confirm Bernhardt as deputy secretary but has <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2019/02/14/michael-bennet-vote-david-bernhardt/" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">announced</a> he will oppose his nomination to lead the agency.<div class="p16_20" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div></div></blockquote>Asked to comment on the audio recording of the IPAA meeting, Nada Culver, senior counsel for the Wilderness Society, told Politico that the lobby group’s access ultimately resulted in attaining much of what it wanted from the Trump administration. “The IPAA’s wish list was granted as asked, in the executive order, and in the actions taken by the Department of the Interior,” Culver said. “It pains me to say it.”<div class="p17_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">With Bernhardt’s confirmation hearing set for next week, environmental groups are rallying constituents to call their senators to reject the nominee.<div class="p18_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As Anne Hawke of the NRDC told her group’s members this week, “Bernhardt’s sorry record in protecting America’s natural resources, wildlife and waters makes him uniquely unfit for the job, and we urge you to call on lawmakers to reject his nomination.”<div class="p19_20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">President Trump, the Hawke further warned, “is handing over the future of our public lands, wildlife, waters and all they support to a man who has made a living for decades attacking all of that to benefit some of the biggest industrial polluters on the planet.”<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">forbes mag</div><div style="">bs
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/legalnewsline/2018/04/27/judge-ca-cities-alleging-doom-in-climate-change-lawsuits-sold-investors-a-different-story/#54681cea10e1">https://www.forbes.com/sites/legalnewsline/2018/04/27/judge-ca-cities-alleging-doom-in-climate-change-lawsuits-sold-investors-a-different-story/#54681cea10e1</a>
California officials who are suing large energy companies are telling two contradictory stories while taking part in a targeted effort featuring state attorneys general, private lawyers and Rockefeller money, a Texas judge has found.On April 24, Tarrant County District Judge R.H. Wallace, Jr. signed off on proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, changing little from what Exxon is claiming – that lawsuits from California cities and counties are the product of an alleged conspiracy and assert that near-certain, climate change-caused doom is coming, even though previous bond offerings made to potential investors say such catastrophes can’t be predicted.The judge’s <a href="http://eidclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Tarrant-County-Facts-and-Conclusions.pdf" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://eidclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Tarrant-County-Facts-and-Conclusions.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">filing </a>was obtained by <a href="http://eidclimate.org/judges-bombshell-filing-confirms-climate-conspiracy-against-energy-industry/" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://eidclimate.org/judges-bombshell-filing-confirms-climate-conspiracy-against-energy-industry/" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Energy In Depth</a>, a research program of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.<div id="article-0-inread" style="box-sizing: border-box;">“While the California municipalities alleged in their complaints against the energy companies that the impacts of climate change were knowable, quantifiable and certain, they told their investors the exact opposite,” Wallace's filing says.“These contradictions raise the question of whether the California municipalities brought these lawsuits for an improper purpose.”The California counties of Marin, Santa Cruz and San Mateo and the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Richmond and Imperial Beach have filed suit against several energy companies - including Exxon, Chevron and BP - over climate change. The company <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/climate/exxon-climate-change.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/climate/exxon-climate-change.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">is also being targeted</a> by the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York.Exxon took the fight to Texas in January by asking that it be allowed to depose the officials who filed these cases, as well as Hagens Berman lawyer Matt Pawa. The firm is representing some of the plaintiffs on a contingency fee.The depositions could lead to a lawsuit alleging the California cases were brought in bad faith.Statements made to potential investors contradict allegations made by the municipalities when they sued the energy industry, Exxon argued. For example:San Mateo County’s complaint says it is “particularly vulnerable to sea level rise” and that there is a 93% chance the county experiences a “devastating” flood before 2050. However, bond offerings in 2014 and 2016 noted that the county “is unable to predict whether sea-level rise or other impacts of climate change or flooding from a major storm will occur."At a recent <a href="https://legalnewsline.com/stories/511398628-in-suing-exxon-over-climate-change-boulder-is-hoping-company-s-deep-pockets-will-pay-for-its-left-wing-agenda-group-says" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://legalnewsline.com/stories/511398628-in-suing-exxon-over-climate-change-boulder-is-hoping-company-s-deep-pockets-will-pay-for-its-left-wing-agenda-group-says" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">American Enterprise Institute event</a>, an attorney representing Colorado governments in climate change cases noted that the bond offerings came with a statement regarding a final paper from the California Climate Change Center that said property in San Francisco Bay is vulnerable to impacts associated with sea-level rise.But the cities did not present an opinion on the accuracy of those claims, which was noted by Competitive Enterprise Institute attorney who attended the event.The California cases came five years after a “playbook” was <a href="https://norcalrecord.com/stories/511312531-seeds-of-anti-exxon-campaign-were-planted-at-2012-climate-change-conference-company-says" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://norcalrecord.com/stories/511312531-seeds-of-anti-exxon-campaign-were-planted-at-2012-climate-change-conference-company-says" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">discussed at a 2012 conference in La Jolla, CA</a>. It is being carried out by Pawa, the AGs of New York and Massachusetts and the California local governments, Exxon said.The judge’s findings of fact agree.“During the conference, participants discussed strategies to ‘[w]in [a]cess to [i]nternal [d]ocuments’ of energy companies, like ExxonMobil, that could be used to obtain leverage over these companies,” the filing says.“The conference participants concluded that using law enforcement powers and civil litigation to ‘maintain[] pressure on the industry that could eventually lead to its support for legislative and regulatory responses to global warming.’ One commentator observed, ‘Even if your ultimate goal might be to shut down a company, you still might be wise to start out by asking for compensation for injured parties.’"In 2016, Pawa met with members of the philanthropic Rockefeller Family Fund. The draft agenda said the goals of his campaign included convincing the public that Exxon is a corrupt institution that “has pushed humanity (and all creation) toward climate chaos and grave harm,” as well as forcing public officials to distance themselves from the company by refusing campaign donations and rejecting requests for meetings.The Rockefeller Brothers Fund recently awarded <a href="https://legalnewsline.com/stories/511397928-recent-grants-help-nonprofits-doing-most-of-the-work-on-boulder-s-climate-change-lawsuit" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://legalnewsline.com/stories/511397928-recent-grants-help-nonprofits-doing-most-of-the-work-on-boulder-s-climate-change-lawsuit" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">a $200,000 grant</a> to the Niskanen Center, which is representing the City of Boulder in its lawsuit against Exxon and another company.“The draft agenda notes that participants planned to use ‘AGs’ and ‘Tort()’ suits to ‘get() discovery’ and ‘creat(e) scandal,’” the judge’s filing says.Those AGs attempted to hide their coordination with Pawa, the judge says."At the press conference, Attorney General Schneiderman discussed the need to regulate the energy industry's speech on climate change, just as Potential Defendant Pawa had urged at La Jolla and at the Rockefeller meeting," the filing says.The judge also found that this effort was done to chill Texas-based free speech (Exxon’s statements public statements about climate change), so jurisdiction is proper in his court.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">...IOPA closing its doors after 113 years representing small oil producers ...<div class="s" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv SWb" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;">www.taftmidwaydriller.com/.../iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-sm...</cite><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="Fmb ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Independent+Oil+Producers+Agency&oq=Independent+Oil+Producers+Agency&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2.2070j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b1" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwjq1rTWz9DZAhUb3YMKHSnUB5oQ7B0IMDAB" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 1px 0px 2px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none; user-select: none; background-image: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="0ahUKEwjq1rTWz9DZAhUb3YMKHSnUB5oQqR8IMTAB" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwjq1rTWz9DZAhUb3YMKHSnUB5oQIAgyMAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwjq1rTWz9DZAhUb3YMKHSnUB5oQIAgyMAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">Nov 13, 2017 - 31, so independents will have to market their own oil. For more than a century the small oil producers on the West Side have worked together to sell their contracts. The “mom and pop” producers all belonged to the Independent Oil Producers Agency, which was formed in 1904, to sell the crude oil they ...</a></div><div class="s" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwjq1rTWz9DZAhUb3YMKHSnUB5oQIAgyMAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">IOPA was formed on Nov. 3, 1904, Holmes said and it was in response to having to deal with the Rockefeller oil empire that controlled the rail cars and dictated the price the independents could get for their oil.The small producers banded together and formed IOPA.Then, working in conjunction with Union Oil, built a pipeline to a terminal on the coast at Port San Luis near Avila Beach.From there the oil was shipped north to refineries in the San Francisco Bay area “to get a fair price,” Holmes said.In the 1940s, IOPA turned over its interest in the pipeline to Union Oil in return for a 5-year contract to sell their oil to Union.That contract was an “evergreen” contract that was automatically renewed for the next 70-plus years. In 2013, Phillips, which had obtained the contract from Union, told IOPA it would not be renewed when it expired at the end of 2017.<div class="ad-container" style="box-sizing: border-box;" crimson="Crimson" text="Text" georgia="Georgia" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div data-gh-lazy-ad-loaded="true" class="ad ad-300x250" data-gh-lazy-ad-bucket-targeting="{" keyword="keyword" local="Local" business="Business" news="News" economy="Economy" and="And" finance="Finance" energy="Energy" resource="Resource" carousel="Carousel" featured="Featured" newsletter="Newsletter" clark="Clark" fred="Fred" holmes="Holmes" independent="independent" oil="Oil" producers="Producers" agency="Agency" iopa="IOPA" les="Les" ad-type="ad-type" standard="standard" slot="slot" view="View" plus="Plus" med="Med" rec="Rec" sov="sov" standalone="Standalone" data-dimensions="[300,250]" id="lazyad-1" adonis-marker="" data-google-query-id="CKGmzfnQ0NkCFUXGwAod_FYKsQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.2138em 0px 1.2138em 1.2138em; width: 300px; height: 250px; clear: right; float: right;"><div id="google_ads_iframe/11564835/taftmidwaydriller.com/news_5container" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0pt none;">To say it’s the end of an era is an understatement.“There’s a lot of history here,” Holmes said. “As an agency, we had a lot of advocacy with Les Clark which we are dearly going to miss,” Holmes said.Clark joined IOPA as its executive vice president in 1981 after working 15 years at Belridge Oil.</div></div></div></a></div><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwjq1rTWz9DZAhUb3YMKHSnUB5oQIAgyMAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:K2GZtIjyH00J:www.taftmidwaydriller.com/news/20171113/iopa-closing-its-doors-after-113-years-representing-small-oil-producers%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwjq1rTWz9DZAhUb3YMKHSnUB5oQIAgyMAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/rex-tillerson-has-been-misleading-public-about-dangers-fracking-years">http://www.alternet.org/environment/rex-tillerson-has-been-misleading-public-about-dangers-fracking-years</a>.... It worked. With help from sympathetic (and largely conservative) media outlets and a barrage of propaganda from industry front groups like “Energy in Depth,” the industry was able to brand the victims as liars and charlatans. “Their water was always like that” became a meme—a “sciencey” explanation that let the industry off the hook and blamed the victims. Each new case got the same treatment, and with oil industry PR money behind it, much of the nation believed it.  Central to the oil industry’s branding of fracking as a clean source of energy is the claim that “there’s never been one case of water pollution from fracking.” Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exon (and now Secretary of State) looked straight into the camera and proclaimed in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2013 that after “a million data points,” there had “never been a verifiable case of fracking polluting drinking water.”  The claim was patently false. At that point we knew aquifers had been polluted in Dimock Pa, Pavilion Wyoming and Parker Country Texas.  Texas, Colorado, Wyoming resulting in dozens of water wells being polluted. Testing in all three cases pointed to gas extraction.In fact, there are documented cases of fracking contaminating drinking water as early as the 1980s. An EPA report from 1987 showed that “fracturing the Kaiser gas well on Mr. James Parson’s property, fractures were created allowing migration of fracture fluid from the gas well to Mr. Parson’s water well.” Industry itself admitted that fracking polluted the well.  During the 1990s when modern fracking technologies were being pioneered in Texas, widespread instances of pollution were acknowledged by Texas regulators.But with enough people in positions of power and influence repeating it, the claim that there had never been a single case of fracking polluting drinking water became a “fact.” Media figures, oil industry officials, politicians, state regulators and gas and oil PR teams repeated the same story line: Fracking has been around for seventy years and there’s never been one documented case of pollution.There were numerous problems with this story. First, modern slick-water fracking combined with horizontal drilling is a relatively new technology.  Comparing the “stimulation” of old vertical wells to modern fracks with pressures up to 15,000 PSI and hundreds of chemicals is like comparing a 1960s rotary phone to today's iPhone.  Also left out of the not-one-case story is a clever sleight of hand with the definition of fracking. The oil industry defines “fracking” as only what happens in the horizontal section of pipe thousands of feet underground. According to this reasoning, the only way fracking can pollute drinking water is by migrating through thousands of feet of solid rock. Pollution from the vertical part of the well—where most leaks occur—or surface activity is not in this technical definition pollution from fracking.Of course, most people understand fracking as the whole process of transporting equipment and chemicals to the site, drilling the well, extracting the gas and transporting it to market. Oil industry PR people are perfectly willing to use this confusion to their advantage. They can cite scientific papers claiming that “there has never been a case of fracking polluting drinking water,” and let the public believe they are referring to the common-sense definition of fracking as the entire industrial process.Industry leaders like Tillerson know all this, of course. But they just keep repeating the same misleading claim. If enough “experts,” authority figures and media personalities keep repeating it, the big lie becomes a fact in people’s minds. And once it’s embedded, these everyone-knows-it facts are very difficult to dislodge.An important part of the oil industry drive to control perceptions of fracking is demonizing its critics. Victims are portrayed as greedy fraudsters. Environmentalists are portrayed as hysterical, hypocritical busy bodies inventing scandals about a clean energy technology they should be celebrating. Filmmakers like Josh Fox, whose film “Gasland” shined a spotlight on cases of pollution associated with fracking, were subjected to withering character assassination campaigns.The IPAA, the oldest petroleum industry association in the nation, funded a film a film to discredit “Gasland” called “Truthland.” It was a shiny spin piece that painted any case of water contamination as naturally occurring. The best known of these fracking-denial films is “FrackNation” by Phelim McAleer. McAleer has made a career out of making films depicting environments as hypocritical elitists and pollution victims as frauds and liars. A darling of conservative news outlets, McAleer has been one of the most effective proponents of fracking-has-never-contaminated-drinking-water meme. Other media figures like Alex Epstein and Ezra Levant have cashed in by writing Ann Coulter-style books popularizing oil industry talking points. Levant is famous in Canada for his shouting-head attacks on oil industry critics.IPAA also fired up their own PR “news” outlet, Energy In Depth. In a memo announcing the new media group, IPAA stated the group’s goal; “EnergyInDepth.org: a state of the art online resource center to combat new environmental regulations,”. The venture was funded by major gas and oil interests including; BP, Anadarko, Marathon, EnCana, Chevron, Talisman, Shell, Halliburton and Schlumberger and Energy in Depth remains one of the main purveyors of the gas industry’s talking points regarding water, fracking and pollution.When a reporter or member of the public asks if fracking pollutes drinking water, they’re likely asking if any part of the entire process contaminates drinking water. That’s logical since the entire process will be used as the nation moves forward with the planned fracked gas revolution. When the question is answered with a resounding, seemingly convincing ‘NO’, the reporter or citizen thinks no water has ever been contaminated by any part of the fracking process.While industry has gotten away with this ruse for a decade, hundreds of cases of water contamination have become known. After a long fight, The Scranton Times got Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection to count the number of letters it sent to residents confirming incidence of water contamination during their fracked gas boom. That number was 243. The Associated Press found at least four states had recorded water contamination also. One troubling fact keeps us from knowing how many cases have actually occurred. When a homeowner settles their case with the operator, they are required to sign a silence agreement that disallows them from sharing any facts about their case. Not only do we know hundreds of cases of water contamination related to the fracking boom have occurred, as it is today, we can never know how many cases there really have been.= <p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">restore middle class CA
independent expenditure committee sponsored by the California Independent Petroleum Association.=the Trump administration intends to scrap and rewrite an <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/new-fracking-rules-on-public-lands-a-giveaway-to-oil-and-gas-industry--1882022945.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Obama-era rule</a> designed to make <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/fracking/" style="text-decoration: none;">fracking</a> on federal lands safer.Drilling has taken place on federal lands for years, with more than 100,000 wells in existence. In 2015, the Interior Dept. issued new standards aimed at making the process safer, including stricter and higher design standards for wells and waste fluid storage facilities to mitigate risks to air, water and wildlife. Companies would also be required to publicly disclose chemicals used in fracking.However, U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl blocked the Obama rule in June after accepting the argument from energy companies and several states that federal regulators lack congressional authority to set rules for fracking.The Obama administration appealed the decision to the 10th Circuit, but the rule could be killed for good. The Trump administration said in court filings Wednesday it is withdrawing from the lawsuit.Justice Dept. lawyers representing Interior and the Bureau of Land Management asked the court to "continue the oral argument and hold these appeals in abeyance pending a new rulemaking" on the issue."As part of this process, the Department has begun reviewing the 2015 Final Rule (and all guidance issued pursuant thereto) for consistency with the policies and priorities of the new Administration," the motion reads. "This initial review has revealed that the 2015 Final Rule does not reflect those policies and priorities."A spokeswoman for Interior Sec. <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ryan-zinke" style="text-decoration: none;">Ryan Zinke</a> confirmed with the <a href="https://apnews.com/c1ad47bf4dff4b3e99c061611f510807" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Associated Press</a> that the administration intends to submit a new rule.Neal Kirby of the Independent Petroleum Association of America praised the withdrawal of the rule, calling it "unnecessary, duplicative and would further drive away independent producers from federal lands.""Every energy-producing area has different needs and requirements, which is why the states are far more effective at regulating hydraulic fracturing than the federal government," he said.Many environmental advocates felt that the 2015 rule was already too lenient, but the Trump administration's latest action could be even more worrisome to fracking opponents."This disturbing decision highlights Trump's desire to leave our beautiful public lands utterly unprotected from oil industry exploitation," said Michael Saul, an attorney with the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "Backing away from these modest rules is doubly dangerous given the administration's reckless plans to ramp up fracking and drilling on public lands across America."Other environmental organizations spoke out against the announcement."Today's news demonstrates the degree to which Secretary Zinke and the Trump administration are in the pocket of the oil and gas industry," said <a href="http://earthjustice.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Earthjustice</a> attorney Mike Freeman. <a href="https://www.earthworksaction.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Earthworks</a> policy director Lauren Page said: "By moving to overturn these common-sense protections, the Trump administration is positioning itself against the disclosure of toxic chemicals, protecting clean water and preserving our public land."Groundwater contamination is one of the biggest concerns about unconventional oil and natural gas production. While the industry maintains the safety of the process, in December the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its highly anticipated <a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/hfstudy/recordisplay.cfm?deid=332990" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">final report</a> identifying cases of impacts on drinking water at each stage in the hydraulic fracturing water cycle.The disposal of fracking wastewater into underground wells has also been linked to the alarming increase in seismic activity in states such as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/oklahoma-earthquake-largest-on-record-1998208742.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Oklahoma</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/fracking-wastewater-kansas-earthquake-2045480679.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Kansas</a>."With [Wednesday's] decision, Trump is making it clear that he thinks we need more fracking operations contaminating our drinking water, causing <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/earthquakes" style="text-decoration: none;">earthquakes</a> and polluting our environment, not less," <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Sierra Club</a> Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign director Lena Moffitt said. "The Sierra Club will continue to defend this rule, ensuring that our publicly-owned lands remain protected from fracking and Donald Trump."President Trump has <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/big-oil-drill-national-parks-2188885054.html" style="text-decoration: none;">plans to open up federal lands</a> for more energy development. As a candidate, Trump campaigned on a <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">promise</a> to "unleash America's $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, plus hundreds of years in clean coal reserves."He accused President Obama of "denying millions of Americans access to the energy wealth sitting under our feet" by restricting leasing and banning new coal extraction.Incidentally, the actions of the current administration go against the sentiments of the majority of Americans, who are opposed to fracking and drilling of public lands, according to <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/206159/americans-tilt-toward-protecting-environment-alternative-fuels.aspx" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">a new Gallup poll</a>.The poll, released on Tuesday, determined that 53 percent of Americans oppose fracking as a means of increasing the production of natural gas and oil in the U.S. Only 46 percent support for opening up federal lands for oil exploration, compared to 65 percent who favored it in 2014.<div class="print-content" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 16px;"><div id="node-11921" class="node node-news-article node-promoted node-odd node-print" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><div class="node-inner" style="border-width: 0px 1px 1px; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-left-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); margin: 0px; padding: 20px 15px 15px 90px; position: relative;"><div class="header node-header" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 3px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 700;"><h2 class="node-title" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11921/%E2%80%9Cenergy-depth%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-reporters%E2%80%99-guide-its-founding-funding-and-flacks" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 27px;">“Energy In Depth” – A Reporters’ Guide to Its Founding, Funding, and Flacks</a> [2]</h2></div><div class="node-content" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="sharethis-buttons" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div><div class="section field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="field-items" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="field-item odd" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What is Energy In Depth, really? EID describes itself as "a research, education and public outreach campaign focused on getting the facts out" about hydraulic fracturing, widely known as "fracking." It's a website created by a trade group for the gas industry -- the "Independent Petroleum Association of America" (IPAA) -- and a public relations firm.<img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/Natural%20Gas%20Exports.png" alt="Exponentially Increasing Natural Gas Exports" height="165" width="350" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px; float: right; max-width: 100%;" />In short, IPAA/EID is a PR operation for the industry's multi-billion dollar financial interests in "unconventional" drilling for what is popularly known as "natural gas." Although this expanded drilling is often described as essential to our "national security," the Center for Media and Democracy/PRWatch has shown that the industry <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9130us2m.htm" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">is increasingly exporting</a> [3] gas to be sold in <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11897/fracking-foreigners-new-report-feds-backs-natural-gas-exports" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">other countries</a> [4]. IPAA/EID's PR efforts pay special attention to the "Marcellus shale" gas that lies deep beneath the surface in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and neighboring states, which constitutes a lucrative market for multi-national firms and their domestic counter-parts to exploit.IPAA/EID's "about" page says its "supporting members" are state associations of gas producers. It displays their logos, instead of the global corporations that launched it.What the logos cloak -- in classic PR sleight of hand -- are the larger interests behind the IPAA/EID operation.It has been described by some in the press as merely a "pro-drilling group" (in contrast with "anti-drilling" groups or citizens), but here's how IPAA described EID in a leaked internal memo from 2009, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/%E2%80%98energy-depth%E2%80%99-was-created-major-oil-and-gas-companies-according-industry-memo" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">obtained byDeSmogBlog</a> [5] last year. IPAA privately told its allies that EID was its new "online resource center to combat new environmental regulations," created with funding from Shell, BP, Chevron, and more.In other words, IPAA/EID is more accurately described as a front group launched by global gas companies in order to fight a public relations battle against new environmental protections on fracking.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.25;">Behind IPAA/EID: Some of the Biggest Corporations in the World</h2>The leaked IPAA memo reveals that the EID campaign was created through the "financial commitments" of some of the biggest companies (with some of the worst environmental records) on the planet. To wit:<ul style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">Shell, which is the second largest company in the world in terms of revenue, with income of almost a half a trillion dollars in 2011: $470 billion, just behind Exxon. Royal Dutch Shell is a Dutch company registered in London. In 2010, Shell bought <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=East_Resources" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">"East Resources,"</a> [6] which had gas holdings in Pennsylvania and nearby, for $4.7 billion. Shell's environmental record includes the largest fresh water spill of oil in the world (in 1999 in Argentina), a major oil spill near Alaska in 1988, and numerous spills in the Niger delta in Africa. (East Resources' founder, Terry Pegula, and his wife <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=East_Resources" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">gave</a> [6]at least $300,000 to Tom Corbett's campaign for governor of Pennsylvania.)</li><li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">BP, which is the sixth largest company in the world in terms of revenue, with revenue of $375 billion in 2011. BP is a British oil and gas company, which took over two US companies, Amoco and ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company) about a decade ago. Last month, BP and three of its employees were indicted on criminal charges, including manslaughter and obstruction of Congress, in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and it also agreed to pay a $4 billion fine related to the disaster. (And, although many are unaware of it, BP's decisions also made the <a href="http://www.gregpalast.com/slick-operator-the-bp-ive-known-too-well/" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Exxon Valdez</a> [7] disaster worse.)</li><li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">Chevron, which is a U.S. company that is the tenth largest in the world in terms of revenue, with income of $253 billion in 2011. Last year, Chevron obtained gas leases for over a million acres, plus hundreds of thousands of acres of development rights, from smaller companies like <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Chief_Oil_and_Gas" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Chief Oil & Gas</a> [8]. Chevron and other companies have been sued for damaging our environment through the use of the MTBE gasoline additive that has contaminated water and soil. (Chief's CEO, Trevor Rees-Jones, has been active in politics, giving <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/09/american-crossroads-shadow-rnc.html" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">at least two million dollars</a> [9] to Karl Rove's Crossroadsoperations.)</li></ul><img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/EnergyInDepthLaunchers.jpg" alt="The Corporations that Helped Launch EID" title="What EID's List of Supporters Should Include" class="caption" height="205" width="285" style="border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; float: left; max-width: 100%;" />Another corporation whose funding helped launch IPAA/EID is XTO Energy, which became a subsidiary of ExxonMobil in 2010. XTO was a billion-dollar Fortune 500 company that became the largest producer of natural gas in the US after it acquired Hunt Petroleum for $4.2 billion in 2008. ExxonMobil is the largest company in the world, with revenue of $486 billion in 2011. (Exxon's environmental record includes the notorious Exxon Valdezdisaster, and it has spent millions of dollars over the years funding groups that front industry propaganda, as documented by Greenpeace.)Other corporations whose funding helped launch IPAA/EID include two Canadian gas companies, EnCana and Talisman, plus Occidental Petroleum (California's largest gas producer) and Marathon (now Marathon Oil Corporation, which also has major interests in gas).Other IPAA/EID funders include Schlumberger, the world's largest petroleum field services company, which began long ago as a French firm but has been headquartered in Texas for many years. The IPAA memo also listsHalliburton, one of the world's largest oil field services companies, which helped pioneer "proprietary" fracking fluids and whose Energy Services Group is involved in supporting fracking activities. (Halliburton recently settled a criminal corruption case alleging bribery by its then-CEO, Dick Cheney, and a former subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR), in connection with its natural gas operations in Nigeria.)IPAA/EID was also launched with the financial support of the American Petroleum Institute (API), a non-profit trade group that represents many of these same interests. API had revenue of over $181 million in 2010 from "membership dues" from corporations and other sources, and it spent one-third of its income on the Edelman PR firm. According to its IRS Form "990," API gave nearly $200,000 to IPAA for "energy education" between 2008 and 2010.Another IPAA/EID funder mentioned in the IPAA memo is Anadarko Petroleum Company, which has gas wells in Pennsylvania and Texas. Anadarko owned a 25% stake in the Deepwater Horizon, with BP, Halliburton, and others.<img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/Field%20Manual.png" alt="Military Counter-Insurgency Manual" title="Anadarko's Rep Urged Gas PR Teams to Use This" class="caption" height="265" width="300" style="border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; float: right; max-width: 100%;" />Anadarko made the news on fracking last year after its Public Affairs Manager, Matt Carmichael, promoted the use of military "psyops" in Pennsylvania communities to combat "an insurgency" of citizens concerned about fracking (as <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/psyops/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">recorded</a> [10] by Sharon Wilson of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project). IPAA/EID's Chris Tucker tried to <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/45208498/Oil_Executive_MilitaryStyle_039Psy_Ops039_Experience_Applied" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">spin</a> [11] those comments by claiming they were meant as a joke, despite all evidence to the contrary. Carmichael is a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/gas-fracking-industry-using-military-psychological-warfare-tactics-and-personnel-u-s-communities" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">former senior communications guy</a> [12] for KBR, which was a subsidiary of war contractor Halliburton.None of these major for-profit companies or API -- the financial underwriters that launched IPAA/EID -- are listed on the campaign's website or in its description of its supporters.<h2 style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.25;">IPAA/EID Targets the Park Foundation While Keeping Its Corporate Funders Secret</h2>IPAA/EID has been on the attack against critics of the fracking that is so lucrative for its secretive financial backers.Here's a recent example of its disinformation: the Capital Research Center (CRC) -- itself part of the CEO-fueled echo chamber -- quoted EID's flack Tom Shepstone this month implying that the Park Foundation spent more than $17 million helping to oppose fracking in just one year. Wrote CRC: "In 2009, the Park Foundation had net assets of $246 million and spent $23 million, which included $17.6 million in grants and contributions to green groups opposed to fracking, according to Shepstone," a Pennsylvanian whose official title is "Campaign Director" for EID's "Northeast Marcellus Initiative."But, as <a href="http://www.eenews.net/public/energywire/2012/03/12/1" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">reported</a> [13] earlier this year, the Park Foundation's public filings show that only a fraction of that amount was spent on grants for projects to educate the public about fracking. The total for 2009 was approximately $700,000, which is 1/25th of what Shepstone claimed. In contrast, the industry's biggest trade group, API, spends over a $180 million a year on its entire budget, including tens of millions of dollars on PR.This is not the first time Shepstone has had trouble with numbers. In 2000, a court approved his federal bankruptcy after he and his wife racked up more than $725,000 in debt as compared with their assets -- described as a house on five acres (valued at $125,000), a new car loan for a Chevy S-10 Blazer, and $200 worth of clothes, although he attested that they made almost $90,000 annually a few years earlier -- with some personal debt including some debt related to his businesses, described as "Shepstone Management Corp." in Honesdale and "North Country Farm and Gardens Corp.," at 160 Roosevelt Highway in Waymart. They were also subject to an IRS tax lien for more than $20,000 in unpaid taxes attributed to "Tom Shepstake" and his wife in 1996, a claim that was later settled. Americans do, of course, have the right to declare bankruptcy when their financial calculations go awry and get a second chance, like Shepstone.CRC used Shepstone's recent math on Park to buttress the absurd thesis that "Environmentalists often depict themselves as scrappy underdogs fighting the power of entrenched special interests. But the case of the Marcellus Shale -- and the untold energy resources that could be recovered safely by new drilling technology such as fracking -- pits 'the little guy' against powerful 'green' forces such as the Park Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council."<img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/EnergyWire%20Chart.png" alt="Park Foundation grants" title="(source: EnergyWire)" class="caption" height="385" width="235" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; float: left; max-width: 100%;" />Like IPAA/EID, CRC keeps many of its big funders secret, although foundation filings show that its funders have included the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the family foundation of the CEO of the multi-billion dollar Koch Industries -- which in turn is led by Charles and his brother David Koch and is one of the richest privately held gas, oil, and chemical companies in the world. Koch Industries has reaped undisclosed profits from ventures benefiting from expanded fracking, such as from the lower cost of the natural gas used as a feeder to make its fertilizer by Koch Nitrogen, one of the Koch companies.Only in the distorted worldview of CRC does an industry made up of some of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world -- ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, Koch Industries, Halliburton, and more -- get portrayed as "the little guy" fighting for fracking against a putative Goliath in the form of the Park Foundation.In contrast to Shepstone's dramatically inflated figures, "[s]ince 2008, the foundation has given at least $2.8 million to groups and publications fighting shale drilling," according to EnergyWire. That cumulative spending is less than a quarter of what Shepstone claimed the Park Foundation spent in one year alone.But such efforts to discredit the growing grassroots movement of citizens concerned about fracking -- such as by insinuating that it's all about "buckets of money" from Park, according to Shepstone -- are particularly deceptive when made by operations like CRC and IPAA/EID, which don't disclose the identities of their major funders such as the for-profit businesses that paved the way for EID's campaign.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.25;">Uncloaking the Revenue Stream of IPAA's PR Machine</h2>Because EID was created as an operation within the IPAA, it does not file its own IRS Form 990 tax form, and so its true revenues and expenses are hidden from public view.What is known is that, in 2010, IPAA had revenue of more than $8 million ($8,714,606) and spent almost the same. This revenue and expense rate is relatively consistent with the two preceding years.IPAA is described as a trade association organized under 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code. It shares space and staff with its "IPAA Educational Foundation" (IPAAEF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which means that in general contributions to the latter can be counted as a charitable tax deduction by its donors. IPAAEF has annual revenue of almost a half million dollars a year, and it reports paying a "management fee" to IPAA of a little more than $200,000 a year. IPAAEF describes its activities as including grants to fund students "as interns at petroleum companies." According to its Form 990, one of IPAAEF's main activities each year appears to be its "Wildcatters Ball," which cost $227,270 in 2010. IPAA also hosts an annual golf tournament that costs almost $200,000.IPAA has assets worth over $8 million, as of the end of 2010. It invested about $6.5 million of this in publicly traded securities. It did not disclose the identities of these stocks or bonds and whether any of its investments are related to the gas industry. In 2010, it reported investment income of about $215,000.<img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/IPAA%20at%20NASDAQ%20in%20Broadcast%20on%20Times%20Square.png" alt="IPAA at NASDAQ" title="IPAA at NASDAQ (2012)" class="caption" height="255" width="210" style="border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; float: right; max-width: 100%;" />IPAA was also listed in a publicly filed licensing <a href="http://www.secinfo.com/dujPe.33w.c.htm" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">agreement</a> [14] in 2002 between the FBR Family of Funds and the "IPAA Energy Index." According to that agreement, "the FBR/IPAA Energy Index Fund is a series of a registered open-end management investment company whose objective is to track the price and yield performance of publicly-traded common stocks of companies represented by the IPAA Energy Index. The Fund is a no-load mutual fund, and its assets are invested by FBR Fund Advisers, Inc." There is little public information about what happened under that agreement or whether or not IPAA has other relationships with investment funds or groups speculating on fracking. It has showcased presentations on capital investment in fracking featuring information from investment bankers like Goldman Sachs.As a non-profit organization, IPAA's tax benefits under the federal tax code are predicated on it not being "organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which [can] inure[] to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual." There is no public information indicating whether or not any of its employees invested in the FBR Fund or other energy funds, stocks or other investment vehicles, or whether it has any policy barring its employees from such investments or land speculation in fracking regions. It has no published conflict-of-interest policy on this issue, but there is no legal requirement that it adopt one (other than for conflicts involving payments from the non-profit entity to people related to principals in the organization).In 2010, IPAA received $3.8 million from membership dues and most of the remainder of its $8 million budget from program fees for nearly two dozen conferences a year. IPAA's annual dues for gas companies are calculated on a sliding scale based on the "Barrel of Oil Equivalents" (BOE) and range from $4,000 to $60,000 per year depending on whether a company's BOE is under 750,000 or more than 50 million BOE. By reference, Anadarko Petroleum, a funder of IPAA/EID that is described as one of the world's largest oil and gas exploration firms, "had production of 206 million BOE" as of 2008.Companies that pay these dues can deduct 65% of them as business expenses; 35% of the dues are considered lobbying expenses. In 2010, IPAA reports that it spent $1.3 million on lobbying and political expenditures. IPAA also has a related "527"-type organization involved in political campaigns, called the "IPAA Wildcatters Fund," which had $542,639 in receipts in the run up to the 2012 elections. IPAA also told the IRS in 2010 that it had "joined forces with the Business Industry Political Action Committee," whose slogan used to be "Electing Business to Congress" and is now "Powering Business Political Success."<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.25;">Who Leads IPAA/EID and for How Much?</h2>The portion of IPAA's annual revenues or expenses that fund its EID campaign is not disclosed.What is known is that in 2010, IPAA paid its president, Barrett (Barry) Russell, more than one-half million dollars in total compensation ($511,000 and a promise of health insurance for him and his wife for life). Russell was elected president of the IPAA in 2000. He also has seat on the board of theBusiness Industry Political Action Committee and the National Energy Education Development Project. He's <a href="http://www.ipaa.org/about-ipaa/board-of-directors/barry-russell" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">been</a> [15] IPAA's "chief legal and financial officer since 1988 and an officer of IPAA's educational foundation since its inception." He previously worked for the EPA, and he also worked for consulting firms, such as Booz, Allen and Hamilton, specializing in mergers and acquisitions.IPAA paid another nearly one million dollars in total compensation for its next five highest paid employees combined (who each earn over $200,000 a year). This list includes Lee Fuller and Jeff Eshelman, who are specifically listed on the EID website as part of the EID team.Fuller, a chemical engineer, is IPAA's Vice President of Government Relations, and he is listed on the website as EID's "Executive Director." He <a href="http://www.aiche.org/profile/lee-fuller" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">began working for</a> [16] IPAA in 1998 after working as a lobbyist for the gas industry for 12 years following an eight-year job staffing the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, where he handled rules on drilling fluids, wells, and Superfund sites. Eshelman is also a Vice President for IPAA and has served as its spokesman for a number of years.<img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/Money_Wad_Red_Bow.png" alt="Big Raises" height="160" width="215" style="border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px; float: left; max-width: 100%;" />In 2010, these and other IPAA executives got big raises, including a raise of <a href="http://wonkette.com/442001/welcome-to-poverty-everyone-you-need-household-income-of-68k-to-live" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">more than $60,000</a> [17] for the president. The salary increases for other IPAA executives that year ranged from $21,000 per year to $53,000 per year.There is no information in IPAA's 2010 public tax filings about what the 13 other staffers listed on its EID campaign website are paid per year because only the top highest paid staffers are required to be disclosed (and also some of the EID team are recent hires). There also appears to be no publicly posted conflict-of-interest rule in this field that would require the disclosure of any fracking-related stock or real property holdings that would benefit from limiting restrictions on fracking by any IPAA/EID team member.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.25;">Shining a Spotlight on the IPAA/EID Marcellus Team</h2>According to the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/%E2%80%98energy-depth%E2%80%99-was-created-major-oil-and-gas-companies-according-industry-memo" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">leaked memo</a> [5] from IPAA, EID's reason for being is to serve as a "major initiative to respond to . . . attacks" on fracking and amplify "coordinated messages." Although IPAA/EID's reach is nationwide, one area where it appears to be particularly aggressive is Pennsylvania, through the blogging and outreach of Tom Shepstone.Shepstone is described as the Campaign Leader of the EID Marcellus team. Before joining IPAA/EID, Shepstone worked primarily as a consultant writing reports for towns about land planning, at taxpayer expense. Even before he became the gas industry's campaigner in the region, he was apparently recommending <a href="http://www.wearepowershift.org/blogs/township-planning-consultant-fracker-tom-shepstone" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">industry-friendly land use rules</a> [18], such as including a so-called "right to mine" in recommendations, expressly urging towns not to interfere with the development of natural gas, and not including recommendations for extra setback distances from property lines for industrial activities versus other structures. Shepstone was previously an IACP certified planner, which has conflict-of-interest rules, but he has said that he stopped paying dues and was not dropped by the American Planning Association.In the period between his bankruptcy and his public association with IPAA/EID last year, Shepstone was often quoted in the press with the description "local businessman." He also wrote online comments praising right-wing diatribes. For example, he gave the highest review to the book, "The Red Decade: the Classic Work on Communism in America During the Thirties," which he said provided "[g]reat insights for those who recognize we are reliving the 1930s," and showed how those with a "liberal/leftist" mindset are prone to be "manipulated by totalitarian thugs."<img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/The%20Liberal%20Mind.png" alt="Right-Wing Screed Endorsed by Shepstone" title="One of the Right-Wing Screeds Praised by Shepstone" class="caption" height="275" width="195" style="border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; float: right; max-width: 100%;" />In another public review, Shepstone gave the highest marks to "The Liberal Mind: the Psychological Causes of Political Madness," which he said would help readers "completely understand how Obama thinks" and explains the president as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton "in their totality." He also claimed that reading this and Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" -- a favorite boogeyman of right-wing talk show hosts -- would help "predict" President Obama's actions. The "Liberal Mind" book endorsed by Shepstone actually claims repeatedly that embracing progressive values is a mental disorder that is "the product of psychopathology," which undermines "the ability of families to raise children to be self-reliant" and "threatens to destroy the West's greatest achievement: the American dream of civilized liberty."Given Shepstone's warm embrace of such fringe views, it is not entirely surprising that the IPAA/EID Marcellus website for the campaign he leads takes pains to try to score right-wing points in claiming that "the shale 'revolution' in the United States is impacting our 'friends' in Russia and Iran." It is also unsurprising that some of Shepstone's writings for IPAA/EID refer derisively to his fellow citizens exercising their fundamental First Amendment rights. To take a few recent examples of the tenor of his remarks, he put down an advocate asking serious and legitimate questions about the consequences of fracking in the community as an "aging activist seeking relevance in a modern world" and he also derided a community protest of 150 citizens as "a pathetic failure."But, beyond his apparent animosity toward progressives and other concerned Americans, it is Shepstone's claims that areparticularly astonishing. Here's a sampling of his disinformation sound bites:<ul style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">"Hydrofracking Improves Water Quality!" – When Shepstone made this claim at a public meeting, he was met with a spontaneous <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl_5lOVoaVQ" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">burst of laughter</a> [19] in disbelief, but he claimed it was true because more wells will be tested due to fracking than are currently monitored. In claiming fracking improves water quality, Shepstone conveniently ignores the millions of gallons of fresh water contaminated in the process of fracking each well, resulting in waste water whose "brine" is not even recommended for use on roads because of the risk of ground water contamination. He also ignores concerns that the water may become contaminated with dissolved radium due to the radioactive uranium rock in the region, requiring additional treatment, among other concerns that have been raised across the country about the potential for contamination of America's precious aquifers and the spoiling of Americans' wells.</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">"Natural gas produces water rather than depleting it" – Shepstone made this claim apparently based on the fact that burning methane gas or heating wet gas releases water vapor, and water is a heavier molecule than methane, but his claim ignores the fact that millions of gallons of fresh water are being pumped from aquifers and rivers to be spoiled with each fracking well, and the industry is banking on drilling thousands and thousands of such wells in the region.</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">"There is no evidence the development of this resource will damage the environment . . . but plenty of evidence the farm and the woods can be saved with it" – This Shepstone claim is predicated on the notion that rural land can require money for property taxes to maintain, which he says gas leasing revenue will aid, but his claim ignores the effect of industrialization on farms, parks, and rivers, which has been documented by Oscar-nominee Josh Fox and others. Shepstone's claim also ignores other documented environmental hazards from fracking, including the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov5nkkRDfGQ" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">venting of unprocessed methane gas</a> [20] and other carcinogens associated with fracking (as documented in the video at the link).</li><li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"Hydraulic Fracturing Is An Open Book" – Shepstone pushed the idea that fracking fluid "is an open book" because some of the chemicals in it have been revealed, even as he sought to minimize concerns about what secret chemicals are in dozens of pounds of ingredients used in each well that companies keep secret under the claim that they are "proprietary," chemicals he says are basically harmless jellies. Because the blend of secret chemicals is proprietary and varies by manufacturer he cannot actually prove his assertion, but that's no deterrent. He also fails to mention that <a href="http://www.polluterwatch.com/category/freetagging/independent-petroleum-association-america" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">IPAA has lobbied to keep such chemicals secret by opposing the closing of the "Halliburton loophole,"</a> [21] -- legislation that was mentioned in the IPAA's leaked memo discussing the need for its EID campaign. (Similarly, the <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> [22] (ALEC) has also pushed for so-called <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html?ref=politics" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">state "disclosure" rules sought by Exxon</a> [23] to keep certain chemicals used in fracking secret from the public, as reported by the New York Times.)</li></ul>These are just some of Shepstone's many claims on behalf of IPAA/EID. Curiously, but on a much more minor note, he has also written online comments pushing pro-fracking claims sometimes citing as his location towns other than where he actually resides in Pennsylvania.Shepstone is not the only writer/speaker for IPAA/EID in Pennsylvania; he's just its most visible one. And, his trade group's pro-fracking campaign has many components in its efforts to persuade the public and discredit critics of fracking. For example, IPAA/EID has disseminated attacks on Fox's Oscar-nominated documentary, "Gasland," and his latest film, "The Sky Is Pink." IPAA/EID is also currently promoting its "Truthland" video, complete with a stand-alone website that lists both the EID and IPAA logos as if they were separate entities.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.25;">The IPAA/EID Glass House</h2>Still, there is no doubt that Shepstone and IPAA/EID seem obsessed with both Fox and the Park Foundation. Well before Shepstone's most recent spinning of the foundation's grant numbers in a way that inflates the amount of grants for projects on fracking by combining it with the amounts in support of environmental organizations and other groups, Shepstone was attacking Park and its directors in others ways.At one point, he even made the baseless claim that the foundation was wrongly engaged in "significant political activity," which he defined as "funding opponents of hydro-fracking." Although both his math and his analysis of federal tax law are way out of whack, one of the flaws is his contention that supporting research and public education about the risks of fracking is somehow impermissibly "political," while he ignores <a href="http://checksandbalancesproject.org/2012/12/12/report-fossil-fuel-front-groups-on-the-front-page/" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">the manifold activities by pro-fracking non-profit entities</a> [24] on his side attempting to prevent new laws -- which is one of the very objectives mentioned in the leaked IPAA memo. In his attacks on Park and its grantees (which operate under 501(c)(3) rules allowing for a small percentage of lobbying or which may have separate 501(c)(4) arms to allow for more lobbying and different rules for prospective donors), Shepstone is simply not a credible source for reporters or others on U.S. tax and lobbying laws.<img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/Robert%20Chase.png" alt="Example of an academic close ties to industry" title="(Source: The Guardian's James West/Climate Desk)" class="caption" height="195" width="325" style="border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; float: left; max-width: 100%;" />Moreover, in a feat of astounding hypocrisy, Shepstone attempts to discredit research he claims is supported by an organization that has no financial stake in the outcome of such research, while regularly echoing industry-friendly research and claims shaped by the very interests that have the most to gain from distorting information, the industry he really serves. Meanwhile, investigators have uncovered yet more instances of purportedly independent studies by academics connected to the for-profit fracking industry, as with <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/30/gas-industry-buying-academics" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">reports</a> [25] that a University of Texas professor, Robert Chase -- whose studies claimed that "fracking was safe for groundwater" -- had allegedly "pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Texas natural gas developer."Shepstone has even attempted to defend his own bias by asserting that he held the same views about fracking before he started working on behalf of the industry. Such views are not created in a vacuum, however, and were likely shaped by the natural gas industry's PR machine for which he now works.In his effort to smear Park and those concerned with fracking, Shepstone sidesteps the proliferation of non-profit <a href="http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2012/10/23/frackin-front-groups-and-pr-campaigns/" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">groups that peddle pro-fracking claims</a> [26], as exposed by <a href="http://commonsense2.com/2011/12/naturalgasdrilling/connecting-the-dots-the-marcellus-natural-gas-play-players-part-1/" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Dory Hippauf</a> [27]. Beyond IPAA/EID, these include API (which has launched front groups called "Energy Citizens" and "EnergyNation"), the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Ohio Shale Coalition, America's Natural Gas Alliance, the Center for Liquified Natural Gas, energy Tomorrow, EnergyfromShale.org, energyNow!, EnergyAnswered, LNGfacts.org, SecureOurFuels.org, Oilindependents.org, the Consumer Energy Alliance, Vote4Energy.org, theAmerican Energy Alliance (AEA), the Institute for Energy Research (IER), and others.<img src="http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/AFP%20AEA.png" alt="Back of the AEA and AFP Bus" title="Part of the Pro-Fracking Bus Tour with Koch's AFP" class="caption" height="335" width="275" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 5px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; float: right; max-width: 100%;" />Some of these groups work together on campaigns. AEA, for example, joined in a bus tour with David Koch's Americans for Prosperity (AFP) to influence voters about fracking under the jobs frame frequently spouted by Shepstone. Due to inadequate public disclosure requirements, however, it is difficult to know who helped fund that tour besides Koch through his financial support for AFP, which he helped found and helps lead. This is just one of many ways pro-fracking groups coordinate and amplify common messages. They have even had overlapping public relations staff, as with IPAA/EID's Chris Tucker, a former GOP congressional staffer who has been described as a Senior Vice President at Financial Dynamics, as the "managing director of FTI Consulting and as team lead for Energy In Depth." For a time, Tucker was publicly listed as handling communications for both IPAA/EID and IER, "using the same phone number for both," according to DeSmogBlog's research.Of course, according to the leaked IPAA memo, one of the goals for EID was "coordinated messages."But, Shepstone is relatively silent on such matters and on how his public messages help facilitate that goal.Because entities like IPAA/EID, AEA, API, and AFP are not required to disclose their expenditures with the kind of detail that a grant-making foundation is, it is simply not possible to calculate the true amount of money these various non-profit groups are spending advancing the positions of the gas industry. Although their cumulative budgets amount to well over two hundred million dollars a year, the portion funded to support fracking or attack those concerned about fracking is unknown.But it is clear that the Park Foundation is not a for-profit corporation that would benefit financially from the success of efforts to raise awareness about the risks of expanded fracking. Conversely, the multi-billion dollar corporations and/or some of the wealthy CEOs whose foundations fund organizations like IPAA/IED, CRC, and AFP do have a financial stake in advancing fracking with the least amount of regulation possible, regardless of what may be in the best interests of the public in protecting American families' health and their access to safe drinking water and clean air in the decades ahead.After all, fracking is big business, as IPAA/EID's Shepstone regularly stresses.<hr style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-color: gray; height: 1px;" />The Center for Media and Democracy has received project grants from the Park Foundation that have allowed it to provide greater documentation of fracking issues, but this report was not funded or reviewed by the foundation. The analysis in this report reflects CMD's independent assessments as an expert critic of the techniques used in the field of public relations and propaganda. For nearly two decades, CMD has been a leading investigator of corporate-funded PR campaigns that affect our environment. Its most recent award-winning investigation is ALECexposed.org.The author of this report, CMD's Executive Director Lisa Graves, received her J.D. from Cornell Law School, in Ithaca, New York. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, as the Chief Counsel for Nominations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, as the Deputy Chief of the Article III Judges Division of the U.S. Courts, and as an adjunct professor of law, among other posts.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-12 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden clearfix" http="http" www.prwatch.org="www.prwatch.org" sites="sites" all="all" themes="themes" tb_nex="tb_nex" images="images" bg-ico-categories.png="bg-ico-categories.png" line-height="line-height" px="px" background-position="background-position" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; clear: both; background-image: url("><ul class="field-items" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="field-item even" style="border: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news-types/news" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">News</a> [28]</li></ul></div></div></div></div></div><div class="print-footer" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 16px;">PR Watch is published by the <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/cmd" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Center for Media and Democracy</a>. © Center for Media and Democracy 2013.Center for Media and Democracy • 409 East Main Street, Suite 100 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703-4929 • (608) 260-9713</div><hr class="print-hr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-color: gray; height: 1px; line-height: 16px;" /><div class="print-source_url" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 16px;">Source URL: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11921/%E2%80%9Cenergy-depth%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-reporters%E2%80%99-guide-its-founding-funding-and-flacks" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11921/%E2%80%9Cenergy-depth%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-reporters%E2%80%99-guide-its-founding-funding-and-flacks</a></div>=<a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/california-drilling-plan-verges-insanity-environmentalists-say">http://www.alternet.org/environment/california-drilling-plan-verges-insanity-environmentalists-say</a>BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (CN) - Environmental groups sued Kern County for a zoning revision they say will allow the oil industry to drill 73,000 new oil wells in unincorporated areas - 10 a day for 20 years.Among the severe and illegal shortcomings of the new county ordinance is that it treats the drilling of 72,490 oil and gas wells on 2.3 million acres for 20 years as a single project, the local and national environmental groups say.The Committee for a Better Arvin, Committee for a Better Shafter, and Bakersfield-based Greenfield Walking Group sued the county, its Board of Supervisors and its planning and development department on Thursday in Superior Court. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity joined as plaintiffs. It is the Top Download at Courthouse News on Monday.The Western States Petroleum Association, California Independent Petroleum Association, and the Independent Oil Producers Agency are named as real parties in interest."The oil industry is trying to fast-track permitting for thousands of oil wells," plaintiffs' attorney William Rostov told Courthouse News."It's unfortunate that the Board of Supervisors went along with the oil industry on this. Our clients feel they have no other recourse but to take it to court."Kern County, at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, already has some of the worst air pollution in the country, from oil drilling, pesticides, dust and microparticulates, and ozone from auto and farm machinery exhaust.The rezoning violated the California Environmental Quality Act, one of whose purposes is to educate the public about projects in their vicinity, Rostov said.He said the new ordinance would drastically transform Kern County and have a "tremendous effect" on water and air quality. The county knows about the impacts, but did not properly analyze them, he said. "This is a very important case that could affect Kern for decades to come," Rostov said. "We think we have a very good case."According to the lengthy complaint: "Proposed and paid for by the oil industry, the ordinance and the accompanying final environmental impact report ('Final EIR') purport to authorize the development of up to 3,647 new oil and gas wells and extensive associated construction and operation activities, each year for 20 to 25 more years, without any further, site-specific assessment of those activities' health and other environmental impacts. The ordinance jeopardizes the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of people across Kern County."Kern County, population 839,631, at the southern end of the Central Valley. Nearly the size of New Jersey, it extends from Delano, its northernmost city, south to the Tehachapi Mountains, east into the Mojave Desert and west across the San Joaquin Valley.Its two biggest industries are agriculture and oil and gas development. Kern produces one-tenth of the nation's petroleum and is the top oil-producing county in California, with 81 percent of the state's active oil wells.That number will surge drastically if the amended ordinance, approved on Nov. 9, is allowed to stand, the environmentalists say...= http://www.prwatch.org/node/326http://www.prwatch.org/files/pdfs/prwatch/prwv8n4.pdfTerrorism as Pretext by Sheldon Rampton References to Pearl Harbor prevailed during the first days following the terrorist attacks of September 11. President Bush joined a chain of pundits and government officials in warning that the “war on terrorism” would be prolonged and difficult like World War II and would require similar sacrifices. Whatever those sacrifices may entail, however, the public relations industry is determined to ensure that they do not include wartime frugality. “PR Needed to Keep Consumers Spending,” proclaimed a headline in O’Dwyer’s PR Online on September 24. It cited marketing and PR executive Maureen Lippe’s opinion that the “greatest service PR pros can provide in support of the country is to ensure that the consumer continues to buy.” The world’s largest public relations firms all have offices in New York and Washington, D.C., and their employees felt the same shock, horror and confusion as the rest of the country when airplanes slammed into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Public relations pros joined other volunteers in disaster relief efforts and in raising money for assisting the survivors. America’s home-grown propaganda machine nearly ground to a halt for several days as PR firms advised their clients to hold off for awhile on product launches, news releases and story pitches to reporter...• U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick used the September 11 tragedy to call for fast-track negotiating authority to help President Bush expand the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) into a Free Trade Area of the Americas. “Trade is about more than economic efficiency,” he wrote in the Washington Post. “It promotes the values at the heart of this protracted struggle.” In a September 24 speech before th... The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) used the terror attacks as a pretext to demand that the U.S. Supreme Court override a Clinton Administration decision blocking drilling for oil and natural gas in Montana. “The terrible tragedy of exactly one month ago and the uncertainty as to the reliability of foreign supplies make clear the importance of the United States developing its domestic natural resources,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents the IPAA. 
• The San Diego-based SureBeam Corporation took the opportunity to promote its food irradiation technology as a way to kill anthrax — even though it would take years and untold millions, if not billions, to install irradiation equipment in post offices throughout the United States. Worse yet, “SureBeam has made these claims without any supporting scientific evidence that the company’s ‘electron-beam’ irradiation equipment is capable of killing the anthrax bacteria or its spores,” observed a Public Citizen news release. “In fact, radiation is ineffective against anthrax spores, called ‘endospores,’ which are surrounded by numerous thick layers of material including protein and calcium.” • The Cato Institute, a libertarian, corporate-funded think tank in Washington, DC, used September 11 as... [guns on planes]<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div> ===When the federal government introduced stronger standards for fracking on public lands earlier this month, the oil and gas industry was quick to file lawsuits. On Thursday, the state of Wyoming joined the fray.Claiming that the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/20/3637106/republicans-freaking-on-fracking-rules/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) set of rules</a> released last week “unlawfully interferes” with the state’s existing fracking regulations, Wyoming filed a suit Thursday against the U.S. Department of the Interior, Sec. Sally Jewell, and BLM, requesting judicial review of the rules.In the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_4EQ9PebvQIaVFaZkFKN2dPZWM/view" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">lawsuit</a>, Wyoming claims that BLM cannot put these restrictions on fracking because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has “exclusive authority” to regulate any underground injections under the Safe Water Drinking Act of 1974

However, under the so-called “<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/24/3584055/fracking-with-benzene/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Halliburton Loophole</a>,” added to the SWDA in 2003, fracking activities are specifically excluded from the definition of underground injections, unless diesel fuel is being used — which is fairly uncommon.“It appears the state just has it wrong legally,” Mike Freeman, an attorney with Earth Justice told ThinkProgress. “Wyoming’s petition actually cites the definition of underground injection that excludes fracking.”

The new BLM rules require oil and gas companies to disclose all the chemicals used while fracking on protected lands. During the fracking process, a liquid, usually water, is mixed with chemicals and injected into shale, releasing pockets of natural gas or oil. The water generally cannot be recycled and is toxic after use. Under the new rules, companies will be prohibited from storing fracking wastewater in open pits on national public land and required to periodically test the integrity of every well to help prevent pollution.

Two oil and gas industry groups, Independent Petroleum Association for America and the Western Energy Alliance, havea lawsuit against BLM on similar overreach grounds, saying that the “final rule as issued is contrary to law.” North Dakota is also<a href="http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/03/25/north-dakota-might-challenge-new-federal-fracking-rule/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">reportedly</a> considering a lawsuit. Both Wyoming and North Dakota have experienced an oil and gas boom in recent years.BLM manages <a href="http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">more than 17.5 million</a> acres of public lands in Wyoming, and also has the mineral rights to another 40.7 million acres in the state. In 2013, the most recent year data has been released, 620 new oil and gas wells were started in the state. According to that data, more than <a href="http://www.blm.gov/public_land_statistics/pls13/pls2013.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">7 million acres of public land</a> in Wyoming are currently under lease by oil and gas developers.The BLM’s new rules apply only to oil and gas extraction on federally managed land. As of 2013, the United States managed 247 million acres of public land and had another 700 million acres of mineral rights. Some in Congress want that to change, though. A nonbinding amendment introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) would support state efforts to sell public lands, including national forests, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, historic sites, and national monuments. The amendment, which would require further legislation in order to become law, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/26/3639683/senate-sell-off-public-lands/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">passed</a> the Senate on Thursday. The amendment echoes <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/16/3633814/gop-budget-public-lands/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">similar</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/10/3458798/ted-cruz-auction-off-public-lands/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">proposals</a> made by House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz (R-TX).<span id="trigger-slidedown" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22.44px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tags" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.5em 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22.44px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.5em 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.15em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline;">Tags:</h4> <ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 1em 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; display: inline;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.33em; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/blm/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; background: rgb(221, 221, 221);">BLM</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.33em; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/bureau-of-land-management/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; background: rgb(221, 221, 221);">Bureau of Land Management</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.33em; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/dept-of-the-interior/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; background: rgb(221, 221, 221);">Dept. of the Interior</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.33em; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/fracking/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; background: rgb(221, 221, 221);">Fracking</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.33em; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/lawsuits/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; background: rgb(221, 221, 221);">Lawsuits</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.33em; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/oil-and-gas/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; background: rgb(221, 221, 221);">Oil and Gas</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.33em; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/wyoming/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; background: rgb(221, 221, 221);">Wyoming</a></li></ul></div>===<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">

The Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS) is a regional, non-profit <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_association" title="Trade association" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">trade association</a> that focuses on energy and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_lands" title="Public lands" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">public lands</a> issues in the thirteen-state <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermountain_West" title="Intermountain West" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Intermountain West</a> of the United States. Founded in 1974, IPAMS represents about 400 independent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas" title="Natural gas" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">natural gas</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil" title="Oil" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">oil</a>producers, service and supply companies, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banking" title="Banking" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">banking</a> and financial institutions and industry consultants. Ninety percent of the natural gas wells in America are developed by companies whose names are often unknown. These companies, known as independents, are small businesses that don’t have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refining" title="Refining" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">refining</a> and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail" title="Retail" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">retail</a> operations such as gas stations.

IPAMS advocate the benefits of increased domestic natural gas and oil production from the Intermountain West as a way to reduce <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gases" title="Greenhouse gases" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">greenhouse gases</a> and decrease the U.S. dependence on foreign energy. IPAMS primarily focuses its efforts on federal policy and regulatory interests, including access to federal lands for exploration and production, federal agency permitting, air and water quality, wildlife conservation, health and safety, taxation, and other issues.

IPAMS also provides public and media relations support through a wide variety of media and community outreach efforts. As a regional trade-association, IPAMS has become a source for information and statistical analysis for the natural gas and oil industry in the Western United States.

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ipaa.org/reports/econreports/InYourState/" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaavkleqvr4xn3pgqkamqhduxfqtu7kttkpd5ra8ainfartq2irxfwt2qedafttj2fspioe1ecoleuowwjgzyab="AAAAVklEQVR4Xn3PgQkAMQhDUXfqTu7kTtkpd5RA8AInfArtQ2iRXFWT2QedAfttj2FsPIOE1eCOlEuoWWjgzYaB" ikegorxxhqb="IkeGOrxXhqB" ua9bfcm0lazuh="uA9Bfcm0lAZuh" yiead="YIeAD" caqsz4kcmuaaaaasuvork5cyii="); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), “Reports & Statistics: Oil & Gas in Your State”</a></li>

</ul>

</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>