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The pledge was born out of shareholder activism — and was withdrawn as regulators crack down on greenwashing.

This whale’s death comes at an interesting time: Only a few weeks ago, researchers from Brown University published a new paper tracing the extensive links between offshore wind opponents, who have cast themselves as whale defenders, and the fossil fuel industry. The misinformation that “wind kills whales” hasn’t only been repeated by politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump, or by Fox News—though these right-wingers are saying it a lot. Local wind project opponents, some of whom appear to have environmental values and commitments, have also made this argument in recent years.

“Beyond Dark Money,” published in Energy and Social Science in November, clarified the complicated status of these groups, which aren’t simply astroturf fronts for corporate interests; nor are they purely grassroots efforts. The researchers found that groups in southern New England opposing offshore wind were supported extensively by what the researchers called “information subsidies” from the fossil fuel industry. That means that the industry and its think tanks provide the groups with false narratives, misleading facts, and fake experts. These relationships have helped broaden the coalition opposing wind energy to include people concerned about the environment and many other citizens who wouldn’t normally find common ground with the fossil fuel industry.

“Wind power kills whales” is one of the fake stories generated by this network. One of the groups mentioned in the report, Save Right Whales, founded in 2021, warns on its home page, “They survived whaling, but right whales won’t survive wind energy.” On its home page, Save Right Whales doesn’t mention any threat to whales other than wind energy.

Beyond dark money: Information subsidies and complex networks of opposition to offshore wind on the U.S. East Coast

The California Energy Commission, the state agency that oversees energy policy, approved a $1.4 billion plan Wednesday that regulators said would result in nearly 17,000 new chargers for passenger vehicles statewide, adding to the more than 152,000 public and private chargers available today. The money will be spent over the next four years. In a news release, state regulators said least 50 percent of the funds would go to parts of the state that bear a disproportionate share of pollution, such as communities near major highways, oil refineries and landfills.

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Title & subtitle from the article version of this newsletter

The questions are:

1. Why has the Earth been so much hotter than expected?
2. How can A.I. help climate science?
3. How should the scientific community think about geoengineering?

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the paper is here

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If you live in NY, call Gov. Hochul's office at 1-518-474-8390 and ask her to sign the Climate Superfund bill, S2129B. Give your name and where you live to the person on the phone.