WEBVTT - S6, Part 2 | Ep 2: The New Climate Villains 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:01.480 Last time on drilled. 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:05.520 All of a sudden, they are public enemy number one. 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:11.000 They're now big coal, they are passing preemption legislation throughout 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.480 the United States. They are a climate villain, and this 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:21.000 is a new experience for many of those lobbyists. 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.800 That was Charlie Spatz, a researcher with the Energy Policy Institute, 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.520 talking about the gas industry grappling with its new role 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.120 as a climate villain. If you're somewhat new to the 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:35.519 climate issue, or even if you're not, it might be 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.760 surprising to hear that the gas industry has historically thought 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:43.160 of itself as a climate hero. I myself remember falling 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:45.680 for it way back when, fifteen years ago or so, 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.360 I was living in San Francisco and would see buses 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.519 touting themselves as clean emissions vehicles running on natural gas. 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.680 And I remember thinking, oh, that's good. The early marketing 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.280 of gas as green really worked for a long time. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.120 How is that possible when gas is a fossil fuel. 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.480 I know, well, a whole lot of people who were 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.720 concerned about climate change fifteen or twenty years ago, we're 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.720 very much on board with the idea of fossil gas 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:15.160 as a quote unquote bridge fuel. 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.760 But natural gas should be a bridge to renewables. And 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.520 that's healthy, and that's good. That's clean energy that reduces 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.000 greenhouse gas emissions. But natural gas also can play a 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:29.479 prominent clean role. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.520 The fact that we're transitioning from coal to natural gas 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:39.000 means less greenhouse gases. If you're concerned about pollution, if 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.080 you're concerned about CO two mission, if you're concerned that 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:45.120 this country imports two thirds of its oil, then at 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:46.840 the end of the day, you have to say, I 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.640 need an alternative to a worse environment, and I need 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.840 an alternative imported oil, and the only scalable answer that 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:54.840 is natural gas. 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.760 The prevailing wisdom, even as recently as twenty ten, was 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:03.120 that cheap, abundant gas would get us off of coal 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.320 quicker than any other alternative energy source that would deliver 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:11.760 rapid carbon emissions reductions and improve air quality, and bonus, 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:16.280 fossil gas or natural gas could bolster the stability of 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.639 solar and wind, kicking in when needed to keep energy 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.080 flowing consistently. When fracking started to really boom in the 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.600 mid to late two thousands, the situation got a little trickier. 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.680 Environmental groups like the Sierra Club, which supported the Bridgefield 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.600 idea nationally, had to contend with its own member groups 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:39.400 in heavily fracked states like Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Texas, who 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:44.440 were seeing firsthand what this bargain meant. Sierra Club executive 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.440 director at the time, Carl Pope, had to defend his 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:49.519 policy of supporting fracking. 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.400 Well, it has caused friction, and it's going to cause friction. 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.440 There are people who don't agree with the policy because 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.680 they think the Sierra Club's role should just be to 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.440 oppose anything that has any invat our mental consequences. They 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.960 don't think our role should be to say, Okay, here's 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:05.680 where we think we should get our energy. 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.120 That's him talking to NPR in twenty ten about his 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.200 group's support for natural gas. 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:13.880 We see it as the cleanest of the fossil fuels. 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.000 What's happening with the new discovers of natural gas is 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.200 that parts of the country that historically didn't pay any 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.760 environmental bill for energy production because they didn't produce energy, 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.600 are going to start paying a bigger share of the bill, 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:29.320 and people don't like that. 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.960 Two years after that interview came out, an exclusive report 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.280 in Time magazine rocked environmentalists with the news that the 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:40.640 Sierra Club had accepted twenty five million dollars in funding 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.200 from Chesapeake Energy, the leading fracking company in the country. 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.440 Although it stopped working with Chesapeake after twenty ten and 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.520 told Time that it had turned down an additional ten 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.280 million from the company. The news did serious damage to 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.840 the credibility of the bridge Field narrative. And then the 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.080 story is about frackings. Environmental impacts started to really pile up. 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.080 Neighbors in that Colorado town are given the heat as 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:12.320 well the round water there is apparently contaminated by natural gas. 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.360 A Colorado homeowner is living in fear because their tap 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:16.920 water is flammable. 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:21.120 Does anybody have any idea what the cumulative effect of 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.320 that much fracking material and radioactive material is. 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.640 More recently, the idea of gas as more climate friendly 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.760 has taken a hit as scientists have learned more about 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.960 the fact that drilling, processing, transporting, and burning gas all 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:40.680 released methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Because methane is more 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.120 short lived in the atmosphere than co two, gas advocates 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:48.120 have tended to downplay its impact on climate change, but 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.360 what it lacks in longevity, it makes up for an 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.600 intensity causing around eighty times more warming in the short 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.480 term than CO two, so it's heating things up faster. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.719 And then on top of that, researchers have discovered in 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.279 the past decade that there's a whole lot more of 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.760 it being ripped into the atmosphere than the oil and 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.360 gas industry has ever admitted to or reported. 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:19.960 So I'm Sharon Wilson, and I'm senior field advocate for Earthworks. 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:25.000 Sharon Wilson goes by the Methane Hunter, or sometimes Texas Sharon. 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.480 She spends most of her days going around Texas's pipelines 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.919 and oil fields with an optical imaging camera that uses 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:36.880 thermal imagery technology to make otherwise invisible methane emissions visible. 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.960 Wilson's relationship with fracking is personal. 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.200 I worked for the oil and gas industry. I was 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:52.080 uncomfortable with the ethics of the industry as a whole, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.960 and that was before I knew about any of the 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:57.520 environmental impacts. 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.960 That discomfort eventually led Willilson to leave the industry and 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.760 move out to Wise County, a rural area north of 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:06.960 Fort Worth, Texas. 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:14.400 I bought forty two acres next to the LBJ National Grasslands, 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.680 and I didn't know that that's where George Mitchell, the 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:27.560 father of fracking, was experimenting with how to economically frack 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.480 oil and gas from shale, and so I had a 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:39.159 ringside seat to that adventure. And my air turned brown 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:45.200 and my well water turned black. So yeah, that made 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:45.679 me mad. 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.000 Wilson had a young son at the time and felt 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.760 she couldn't subject him to all that pollution, so they 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.640 moved from the country to the Dallas Fort Worth area, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.320 to a town called Denton. There, Wilson started working with 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.240 the local govern on a fracking band. Then she went 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.680 to work for Earthworks to work on fracking across the state. 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.119 In the course of that work, she made an open 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.800 records request to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.400 got back videos of optical gas imaging that had been 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.679 done at well sites and oil and gas facilities. 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:24.000 That made visible the invisible pollution coming from these facilities. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:28.280 So when you look at it without an optical gas 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:34.840 imaging instrument, you just see tanks and pipes, But when 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:39.240 you look at it with the optical gas imaging camera 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.840 that I use, you see big clouds of pollution coming 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:45.160 from these sites. 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.200 Wilson was hooked. She realized these images could expose the 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.760 true cost of fracking that the gas industry was hoping 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:53.320 to hide. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.600 I felt like it would be a great tool to 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.680 use to help people prove that they were being impacted, 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:07.000 because what industry does is they will blame the odors 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:12.720 that you're smelling and your health impacts on cleaning products 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.640 in your home, or the candles you were burning, or 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:21.840 the dog. They will blame anything but the elephant of 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.960 the oil and gas facility that is plopped down next 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.120 to your home. So I saw it as a way 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.160 to help advocate for people who were impacted. 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.839 More and more advocates like Wilson started to point out 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.160 the enormous amount of methane being released into the atmosphere 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.560 from pipelines and well sites, and frontline communities began to 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:44.600 push back on the impacts the industry was having on 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.240 their water and air. Suddenly, gas went from being part 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.120 of the solution to part of the problem, and that's 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.280 something the industry is having a hard time adjusting. 0:08:54.360 --> 0:09:00.440 To Good morning, everybody, If folks are ready, yes, we 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.000 go ahead to start the next panel, which is entitled 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.280 what do the election results mean for One Future. 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:12.040 This is Pete Sheffield, vice president and chief sustainability officer 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.520 for Enbridge Energy. They're a large Canadian pipeline company that's 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.920 been involved with both the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.640 Rock and Line three in Minnesota. He's talking here to 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.320 the One Future Coalition, a group of more than fifty 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.960 gas companies that have pledged to work together voluntarily to 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.480 reduce methane emissions. This was the group's post election call 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.840 in twenty twenty one. Audio of this and a few 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.880 other industry meetings was leaked to the Energy and Policy 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.800 Institute and shared with DRILLED. The audio cuts out here 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.280 for a second as Sheffield is introducing this panel about 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:50.640 the twenty twenty election. 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.000 As we look at what happened last week, do we 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:59.240 think natural gas is positioned part of the problem or 0:09:59.280 --> 0:09:59.640 a bit of. 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.240 Bot It's hard to hear, but he was posing a 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.280 key question, is natural gas positioned well as a solution 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:14.480 or as part of the problem. Welcome back to DRILLED. 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.000 I'm Amy Westerveldt. This season, we're digging into how the 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.760 gas industry, from oil and gas companies to pipeline companies 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.600 to utilities is grappling with its new role in the 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:30.360 climate conversation today, the battle plan, how the industry is 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.679 strategizing to fight the climate movement. 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:46.280 Stay with us, what exactly would be the stance of 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.120 a Biden Harris administration toward the Green New Deal. You 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.439 have two minutes uninterrupted course. 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.920 So first of all, I will repeat, and the American 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.880 people now that Joe Biden will not banfracking. 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:01.200 That is a fact. 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:06.320 You might remember the question of a fracking ban coming 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.920 up a lot during the twenty twenty presidential election. That 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.240 question was driven in part by all the city and 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:16.480 county gas bands announced that same year. By mid twenty 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.720 twenty one, cities and counties in nineteen states had passed 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:25.040 local gas bands. In California alone, there are now fifty 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.679 local bands, and New York is considering passing the country's 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:33.720 first statewide gas ban. The fossil fuel industry doesn't often 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.160 get caught off guard, but gas bands seem to have 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.199 actually managed it. We get a rare glimpse into how 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.600 the American Gas Association reacted to the flurry of local 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.959 gas bands because they discussed it in detail at their 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:50.240 twenty twenty conference, and the audio of that was leaked 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.080 to the Energy Policy Institute and then shared with drilled. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.480 Here you can hear the Association's vice president of Advocacy 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:02.040 and Outreach, Sue Forester, blaming the climate movement's strategy to 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.839 her gas colleagues. The American Gas Association is the trade 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:08.280 group for gas utilities. 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:13.720 This isn't about lowering emissions, it's actually about fossil fuels. 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:16.040 And so Britney is. 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.679 Kind of a coordinated, cohesive plan of attack from the ENGOs. 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:21.959 They have a lot of big funders, and if they 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.320 get funneled to studies that are ven used by the 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:28.760 grassroots folks to use in states and at local city 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.640 council meetings, and then they have pre written codes. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.040 Okay, So this is pretty amusing because what she's talking 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:39.640 about as though it's really nefarious and geo's coordinating an 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.800 attack on the industry by funding studies that are then 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:45.760 used by grassroots folks at the state level and in 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.160 local city council meetings, having pre written codes that they 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.160 can just hand off to lawmakers. Everything she's describing there, 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.240 that's the industry's playbook, and particularly the right wing playbook 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:03.200 funding universities and particular studies, check, getting those studies into 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.880 the hands of local advocates, check writing codes and laws, 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:12.120 and supplying them directly to lawmakers. That is the entire 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:16.760 purpose of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a pro 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.920 business group set up by the Koch brothers years ago. 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:22.720 I'm not sure why it took environmentalists so long to 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.720 follow the same blueprint, or why industry would be caught 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.320 off guard when they finally did. But here we are 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:30.280 back to Forrester. 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:33.080 What I really want to impress upon everybody here is, 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:34.360 don't think this is just a. 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:35.839 Coastal elite issue. 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:41.040 We're seeing activity in Columbus, Ohio, Lawrence, Kansas, Detroit, and 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.600 even Austin, Texas. Yeah, that's right, Texas, the home of 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.079 oil and gas, which is quite surprising. 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.600 Again, it's highly unusual to see any part of the 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.840 fossil fuel industry caught off guard by the climate movement. 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.520 So it's strange to hear an industry lobbyist scrambling to 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.280 react to an effective climate strategy. But of course it 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.760 has not taken the industry long to figure out a 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.600 counter strategy. Part of that is a push to pass 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:10.080 preemptive laws that prevents states or any cities or towns 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:14.000 within them from ever passing a gas ban, so essentially 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.800 bans on bans. But of course the word ban is 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.880 never anywhere near these laws. They're all about so called 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.800 freedom of choice. Here's Forrester again. 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.120 So the idea behind choice is to really get ahead 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.200 of the localities, the big cities and counties, and say 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.680 we are allowing our customers the right to be hooked 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.680 up to any kind of energy they would like. So 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:42.080 again preserving energy choice, because we're trying to beat counties 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.160 and localities from passing bands that then force the hand 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:49.560 of governors and state legislators to pass something nationwide. 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.240 It's interesting that they call these choice bills because they're 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:57.280 effectively removing a choice from voters before they've even thought 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:57.760 about it. 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.640 We now see the environmental side talking about indoor air quality, 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.920 telling you that your stove is dangerous because it emits 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.440 things and it's causing asthma and kits, and so that's 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.800 one of the big pooses that we're working on right now, 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:14.160 is trying to tell you that's not through any kind 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:15.880 of cooking emits things. 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.880 Well, it's technically true that any type of cooking emits things. 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.760 As Forester puts it, cooking with gas emits at least 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.600 twice as much particulate matter. That's the type of air 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:29.120 pollution that's linked to everything from asthma to shortened lifespan 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.960 as electric. Cooking with gas as opposed to electric also 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:39.280 produces nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde. This 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.960 is just one small example of how the gas industry 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.160 is working overtime to wrestle back control of the narrative 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.640 on gas and in this case, the gas industry, and 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:52.160 again that includes oil and gas companies like Chevron or 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.280 Exon Mobile, as well as smaller companies like Pineer Fuels, 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.160 but also pipeline companies like Enbridge and Energy Transfer Partner 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:05.840 and utilities like Sokel Gas in California, Orever Source in Massachusetts. 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.640 They're trying everything they can to make the bridge feel 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:12.400 narrative stick just one more time. Forrester explains here what 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.600 her organization, the American Gas Association, is doing on that front. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.440 Folks understand that the climate is changing, but they don't 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.920 necessarily know what to do, and so that void is 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.600 where AGA is really going to step in to really 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.400 change the narrative and say that we are part of 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.480 America's clean energy future, and we are here to make 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.640 sure that we can support our customers having choices and 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.920 options that are cost effective and reliable. 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:43.880 You can hear similar language in a recent TV ad 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.080 from the American Petroleum Institute. 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.280 Renewables are great, but we need natural gas too. That's 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.920 what we use now, so when the sun is down, 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:54.240 you have a backup. 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.320 You sound just like your granddad. 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:01.440 Plus, emissions have gone down because natural gas is the 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:06.480 number one source of electricity, Grandma, American energy is leading 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:07.080 the world. 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.760 Natural gas equals a cleaner future. 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.600 It's a fine line for the gas industry because they 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:20.919 want to be part of the clean energy future, but 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.399 they also don't want when in solar gaining too much 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.560 ground because that means selling less gas. It also means 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.720 being stuck with a bunch of gas infrastructure they can't use. 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.680 So they've come up with a solution, which we talked 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.120 about a bit in our last episode. Renewable natural gas 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:44.399 or RNG, essentially methane captured from industrial dairy or meat operations, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.800 sewage treatment facilities, or landfills on the surface. It's an 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.320 okay idea except that it kind of helps greenwash industrial 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.160 ag But the gas industry is using it to keep 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.639 gas in the mix, despite the fact that, according to 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:03.200 global consulting firm ICF, the most RNG could ever hope 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.040 to provide is around sixteen percent of the gas supply, 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:11.320 and critics say that's a wildly optimistic number. Here's Forester 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.040 again on the role of RNG in the industry's plans. 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.959 We also have positive legislation in Minnesota and Colorado on 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.840 RNG trying to make it part of the fuel mix 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.919 and to keep electrons moving through our infrastructure, which is 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:28.800 great news on that front. 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.520 So the industry's positioning now hammers on three key points. 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.520 First freedom of choice, then gas is part of a 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:41.240 clean energy future, and finally affordability. Again here's Forster. 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.120 Our financially challenge communities. We want to make sure things 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:46.360 stay affordable for them. 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.320 This is something that's showing up over and over again 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:53.480 in industry advertising and pr. The green transition is going 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.320 to be expensive. The environmentalists don't care about you, but 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:01.240 we do. And it's not just the message itself. It's 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.440 important who the messenger is too. That's why Forrester explains 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:09.639 the importance of recruiting influencers in key sectors to sing 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:10.879 the praises of gas. 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:14.040 We have convened the National Group of End Users and 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.960 Consumers to help carry our message. Again, we keep hearing 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:22.000 from our message. Testing the industry. Talking about industry isn't effective. 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:26.360 We really need our end users like AARP, the restaurants, 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:31.960 home builders, labors and agriculture farmers specifically are the more 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.800 effective voices for us out there. So we talk twice 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.560 monthly with our coalition partners. We have used them to 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.359 testify in cases in front of the legislatures as well 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:47.200 as at city councils. We are also increasing our outreach 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:53.320 to include local mayors, legislators, African American groups, and all 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.520 kinds of different folks so that we have more friends 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.400 on our side willing to talk about how great natural 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:00.000 gas is. 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.880 And just like those pesky environmental NGOs Forrester was complaining 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.800 about before, they're meeting with local officials and bringing studies 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.920 in sample legislation to them as well. There are currently 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:17.920 nineteen states with preemptive laws banning gas bands. They all 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.200 have similar language in them, drafted by the gas industry, 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.800 often by utilities in particular who have really been leading 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:29.639 the charge against electrification. Here's Charlie Spats from the Energy 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:31.080 Policy Institute Again. 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:35.080 I've spent a long time researching the electric utility industry. 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.320 They have a pathway to decarbonize their electric generation. But 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.760 when you're looking at the gas utility industry, they are 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:48.080 essentially a fossil fuel company. They're selling and distributing a 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:53.840 product that is not easily decarbonized, and worse for them, 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.359 there's solutions on the table that can more or less 0:20:57.600 --> 0:20:59.960 replace the need for their services. 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.280 That gives gas utilities in particular a real motive to 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:10.320 fight against energy transition. And it's nothing new for utilities 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:15.199 to be climate obstructionists. Doctor Lea. Stokes, a political science 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.840 researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara, wrote 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.200 a whole book about how corrupt many US utilities are 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.320 and about their role in blocking climate policy for the 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:29.920 past several decades. It's called short circuiting policy. 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.240 Way back in the early twentieth century, there was a 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.520 person named Samuel Insul and he's actually the guy who 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.080 came up with the way our utility system works. He 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.320 invented the idea of a monopoly utility that had a 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.480 public Utility Commission that would oversee it at the state level. 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:49.000 And you know, there are quotes from that time that say, 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:53.119 for a decade, he was the most powerful business operator 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:54.240 in the United States. 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:56.000 And that really is how it is. 0:21:56.080 --> 0:22:00.320 State by state, these companies are often the most most 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.240 powerful company in a given state. 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.320 And Stokes points out all that power can make them 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:07.280 pretty dangerous. 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.359 If you take Arizona Public Service for example, you know 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:15.320 they are extremely corrupt. They have spent over fifty million 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:19.199 dollars on elections for their own regulator, fighting against a 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:23.480 clean energy ballot initiative. And you know, it's hard to 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:26.200 get clear on how terrible they are because they are 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:30.159 funding the campaigns of a lot of politicians in that state, 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:34.480 and a lot of community groups, you know, soccer clubs, 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:40.359 probably United Weight campaigns, you know, social welfare organizations. These 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:44.679 groups take money from utilities, and so they end up 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:48.000 being a kind of octopus that has its tentacles in 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:49.760 all different parts of the state. 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:52.360 But at the same time, a lot of utilities are 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:54.600 able to avoid rigorous scrutiny. 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:57.040 So I think it's hard for people in a given 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.480 state to get clear on how corrupt and problemat these 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:02.240 monopoly utilities are, and then. 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:03.400 Across the whole country. 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:07.520 Because there's so many different utilities in different states, it's 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:10.159 hard for people to get the same sort of big 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:13.199 picture as they would for a company like Exxon that 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:15.680 operates across the whole country and the. 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:17.080 World, or Chevron. 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:20.240 You know, these companies like Southern Company are in a 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:24.040 couple states, or First Energy, right, and they're also changing. 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:25.080 Their names all the time, right. 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.760 Or they have subsidiaries, so you've got Southern Company as 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:33.000 the parent corporation, but then they've got Georgia Power, for example, 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:37.920 or Alabama Power, and so it's a really complicated area 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:40.520 that makes it hard for people to pay attention. 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:44.560 That's certainly been the case with utilities fighting gas bands, 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:47.920 But people are starting to pay a bit more attention 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:51.560 as some particularly egregious tactics have been coming to light. 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:54.960 So cal Gas, the utility that fought the gas measure 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:57.359 in San Luis Obispo, for example, has been at the 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:01.240 center of a few other scandals for its aggressive tactics 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:06.280 against gas bands. It's currently facing a potential ten million 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:11.159 dollar fine from California's Public Utilities Commission for, among other things, 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:16.040