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Message From the Editor

Oil and gas company executives sure say the darndest things.

Like Dominion Energy VP Donald Raikes, who recently told industry insiders: “We can't sit on the sidelines and be climate deniers.”

Shortly after making this comment, however, Raikes then entertained an audience question about whether Antarctic undersea volcanoes could be causing climate change.

Yes. That happened. Sharon Kelly has the story. [[link removed]]

Meanwhile, some of those climate impacts are being felt in the Gulf of Mexico — even as the region weighs options [[link removed]] to build more fossil-fueled petrochemical plants.

And three years after receiving global attention as the first American “climate refugees,” residents still remain on a vanishing island off Louisiana’s coast. But after Tropical Storm Barry recently brought intense flooding to the Isle de Jean Charles, some residents are reconsidering their complex options for moving to higher ground.

Check out Julie Dermansky’s story and powerful photos. [[link removed]]

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [[email protected]].

Thanks,

Brendan DeMelle

Executive Director

‘We Can't Sit on the Sidelines and Be Climate Deniers,’ Dominion VP Warns Natural Gas Industry [[link removed]]

By Sharon Kelly (11 min. read)

Donald Raikes arrived at 2019’s DUG East conference, a major shale gas industry gathering in Pittsburgh, with a mixed set of messages for his fellow fossil energy officials.

“We are faced with a lot of challenges in this industry,” Raikes, senior vice president of gas infrastructure at Dominion Energy, said. “And this morning what I plan to do is use my time to carve out a call for action for all of us. We need to be very aware of the forces that are out there and how they are coming against us.”

What sorts of forces? Raikes warned specifically about opposition from environmental groups. Read more. [[link removed]]

Louisiana Braces for a Storm While Weighing New Fossil Fuel Projects [[link removed]]

By Julie Dermansky (7 min. read)

Yesterday, I stopped writing another story for DeSmog to get ready for what could likely become this year’s first hurricane in the U.S.

I live in Mandeville, Louisiana, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain across from New Orleans. My home is above sea level, unlike much of New Orleans, so I’m at a much lower risk for flooding impacts than residents of a city nearly synonymous with flooding.

However, like most residents in south coastal Louisiana, I’m bracing myself for a sustained barrage from the sky, as bands of rain and wind from Tropical Storm Barry arrived in parts of the state this morning. The entire Louisiana coast could be hit with the season’s first hurricane by Saturday. Read more. [[link removed]]

Latest Gulf Storm Brings Tough Choices for Residents of Disappearing Isle de Jean Charles [[link removed]]

By Julie Dermansky (9 min. read)

While most of Louisiana was spared Barry’s wrath last week, Isle de Jean Charles, a quickly eroding strip of land among coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico, was not. A storm surge swept over the island, about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans, early in the morning on July 13 before Barry was upgraded from a tropical storm to a category 1 hurricane.

On July 15, I met with Albert Naquin, Chief of the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe (IDJC) and Wenceslaus Billiot Jr., the Tribe’s deputy chief, to travel to the island and assess the damages. That afternoon, we made our way through the receding waters that still covered Island Road, the only route connecting the island to the mainland. Days after the storm, some parts of the road on the island were still submerged in three feet of water. Read more. [[link removed]]

Climate Litigation Has Become a Global Trend, New Report Shows [[link removed]]

By Dana Drugmand (4 min. read)

Climate change-related lawsuits, once mostly limited to the U.S., have now been filed in nearly 30 countries, targeting governments and corporate polluters, according to the latest analysis of the trend.

A new report was published this month by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. It tracks the progress of the suits — filed since 1990 — as they have expanded beyond the U.S., and predicts the trend will continue. Read more. [[link removed]]

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Tim Huelskamp

Tim Huelskamp [[link removed]] is a former Kansas congressman and chairman of the Tea Party Caucus. His top donor while in office was Koch Industries. In July 2017, Huelskamp took the helm as president of the climate science-denying think tank, the Heartland Institute [[link removed]]. Less than two years after starting the role, Huelskamp reportedly resigned from his position in June 2019. Heartland did not comment on why Huelskamp left the position.

Read the full profile [[link removed]] [[link removed]]and browse other individuals and organizations in our research database [[link removed]].

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