What last three @fieldnotes.co investigations tell us about: who, exactly, killed the endangerment finding?
fieldnotes.substack.com/p/an-endange...
10.03.2026 19:17
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What last three @fieldnotes.co investigations tell us about: who, exactly, killed the endangerment finding?
fieldnotes.substack.com/p/an-endange...
Now feels like a good time to remember that Big Oil is the reason why we're still hooked on dirty, dangerous fossil fuels.
The industry's lies have essentially stolen a generation’s worth of time that we could have used to transition to cleaner, safer energy sources.
It’s time for accountability.
For decades, massive methane plumes from oil and gas operations went largely undetected. Now, new satellite technology is revealing “super-emitters,” tracing methane leaks down to specific facilities and equipment.
Today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case related to the Air Force's practice of blowing up toxic military waste right on a beach in Guam—without environmental review.
In 2022, I wrote a piece for @grist.org on this environmental injustice and the Indigenous group fighting to end it.
Behind the Organized Assault on Climate Regulation, a Rented Mailbox in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall
a new @fieldnotes.co investigation: fieldnotes.co/reporting/ce...
Our full brief on that shady legal group w/ties to far-right billionaires, key fossil-fuel influencers, Christian nationalists, libertarian think tanks, major industry lobbies, & fancy law firms that rep corps spanning the length of the oil, gas & petchem supply chain.
fieldnotes.co/reporting/ce...
Our database paints a detailed financial picture for President Donald Trump and hundreds of his political appointees, some of whom have ties to the industries they regulate.
The disclosures include their recent employers, assets and debts.
Infographic showing seven CEA-affiliated lawyers working for fossil-fuel interests in between their first and second stints in the Trump administration.
CEA is also pulling double duty—scratch that, *triple duty*—as a revolving door with the Trump admin. fieldnotes.co/reporting/ce...
A flow chart showing how money moves from ultra-conservative groups to oil & gas lawyers via the Center for Environmental Accountability.
And for you visual learners, here's how the group acts as both a mouthpiece for and middleman between ultra-conservative groups and oil & gas lawyers. fieldnotes.co/reporting/ce...
Great thread by my colleague Josh on the behind-the-scenes story of "Who, Exactly, Killed the Endangerment Finding?" ⬇️
Here's a link to the database. Remember, democracy is a participation sport. Don't sit on the sidelines. projects.propublica.org/trump-team-f...
Great thread by my colleague Josh on the behind-the-scenes story of "Who, Exactly, Killed the Endangerment Finding?" ⬇️
Another 🚨 @fieldnotes.co investigation is out in the wild.
This one reveals how an obscure nonprofit founded by oil & gas lawyers and funded by right-wing ideologues—and registered at a suburban Texas strip mall—has played an outsized role in Donald Trump’s assault on climate /enviro policy. 🧵
Text: American Petroleum Institute SVP of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Dustin Meyer: “Today’s action appropriately ends the previous administration’s EV mandates, which effectively banned new gas-powered vehicles and represented a clear case of regulatory overreach at the expense of American consumers. We continue to support smart, effective federal regulation of emissions - including methane from oil and gas operations. Our focus now is working on durable policies that reduce emissions while meeting growing energy demand.”
In EPA’s press release on the endangerment finding, API praises the agency’s tailpipe rule repeal, but notably doesn’t mention that EPA just killed the finding that underpins nearly all U.S. climate regs.
Weird, right? Unless API is scared the extreme rollback might backfire...
@fieldnotes.co's thread on how the oil & gas industry pushed EPA to rescind the endangerment finding, but is now scared the extreme rollback could leave it vulnerable to "polluter-pays" laws and lawsuits. ⬇️
@fieldnotes.co's thread on how the oil & gas industry pushed EPA to rescind the endangerment finding, but is now scared the extreme rollback could leave it vulnerable to "polluter-pays" laws and lawsuits. ⬇️
The endangerment finding is EPA’s determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, which is what legally *requires* the federal government to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. It’s the foundation of U.S. climate regulation.
This week’s @nytimes.com story on how ultra-conservative activists plotted to wipe out federal climate regs included this doc, obtained by Fieldnotes.
It's a confidential proposal seeking $2 million for a secret effort to draft regs and assemble an “arsenal" of climate denial.
Full proposal here:
New from @rollingstone.com: Documents show industry and regulators knew *decades* ago that injecting toxic liquid waste from oil drilling underground wasn't safe...yet it’s still being dumped below communities nationwide. bit.ly/4aOvoMt
Great rundown from @juliakane.bsky.social & @joshvoorhees.bsky.social on how Trump EPA's move to axe the endangerment finding could backfire on #BigOil - by opening them up to greater liability risk
And now Big Oil's friends in Congress are crafting a liability shield
heated.world/p/trump-is-w...
Proud of the research @fieldnotes.co @juliakane.bsky.social @joshvoorhees.bsky.social did that's informing coverage of the endangerment finding repeal today:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/p...
Crucial point from @grist.org:
"API pioneered many of the arguments now wielded against the endangerment finding... Trump’s EPA used many of these same arguments in its proposed endangerment finding repeal, demonstrating how much his deregulatory agenda owes to the oil industry’s work."
People briefed on the endangerment finding repeal tell me that it's based on legal arguments only. It doesn't take aim at the actual science of warming.
The repeal could decimate federal climate policy -- if it survives legal challenge.
So, has anyone out there actually seen the text of the endangerment finding rollback? Because they haven't put it out. And I'm told Zeldin might not even have signed it yet?
on Signal at jchemnick.01
In case you haven't already seen this: bsky.app/profile/clim...
Crucial point from @grist.org:
"API pioneered many of the arguments now wielded against the endangerment finding... Trump’s EPA used many of these same arguments in its proposed endangerment finding repeal, demonstrating how much his deregulatory agenda owes to the oil industry’s work."
Wondering why API et al aren't celebrating the end of endangerment?
It's complicated but the short story is the oil majors seem legit spooked this is could come back to bite them in the form of liability lawsuits and state superfund laws:
heated.world/p/trump-is-w...
Screenshot of article reads: Nevertheless, API pioneered many of the arguments now wielded against the endangerment finding. In 1999, the group held a meeting of industry lobbyists who strategized challenges to an early EPA proposal to regulate greenhouse gases, according to documents first reported by DeSmog and compiled by Fieldnotes, a research group focused on the oil and gas industry. At the meeting, the API circulated a legal analysis noting that there is “no clear-cut, explicit answer in statute” on the greenhouse gas question, and that “CO2 does not endanger public health and welfare and there are no cost-effective systems of emission control.” In 2008, after the Massachusetts decision, the group argued that the EPA had not produced “sufficient evidence of potential effects and harm,” and it opposed reducing tailpipe emissions in the U.S. on the grounds that this would not end climate change on its own.
Via @grist.org:
grist.org/politics/tru...
Mandy Gunasekara Paid @MississippiMG This is an amazing turn by @washingtonpost . Great job by WH/EPA press team that worked this piece. Finally some sanity 👉 “For now, free-market-driven innovation has done more to combat climate change than regulatory power grabs like the “endangerment finding” ever did.”
"Great job by WH/EPA press team that worked this piece"
from lunatic climate denier Mandy Gunasekara, one of the architects of the illegal reversal of the greenhouse pollution endangerment finding
My household is supporting a South Minneapolis family unable to work or leave home due to ICE. If we can raise some or all of their $1600 rent, we can avoid drawing from high-demand assistance funds and ensure there's more to go around.
Venmo @karleekarleekarlee with 🏠 in the memo to help.