Drilled

The day after our season finale last week, we got some incredible news from Guyana: the High Court ruled against the oil company and the government in the big insurance case Melinda Janki filed. We caught up with Janki shortly after the verdict was released for this conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Will Guyana become the fossil fuel industry's newest profit center or can it chart a different path? In the last episode of our "Light, Sweet Crude" season we look at what's next for Guyana, and for other Global South countries grappling with poverty and climate change at the same time.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's happening in Guyana isn't an isolated case. It's part of a global oil rush, as oil companies race to tap as many remaining fossil fuel reserves as they can. Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell discusses his story about what the global oil rush looks like in another part of the world: Namibia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we started reporting on Guyana's oil boom, we reached out to local environmental groups to hear their concerns about this new polluting industry. But we discovered something unsettling: every environmental organization we could find had taken money from ExxonMobil or its partners. Several have even made promotional videos praising the project. They argue that oil money is no dirtier than any...

The tension between addressing global poverty and acting on the climate crisis is one the fossil fuel industry has been stoking in recent years. We asked Dr. Narasimha Rao to join us this week to get into the details of that conversation, where there are and aren't tradeoffs, and what his Decent Living Energy Project at Yale can tell us about how to solve both global crises at once. See omnystudio...

Melina Janki has filed seven separate legal cases aimed at blocking oil drilling in Guyana, but only one explicitly names climate change as a problem the project is guaranteed to exacerbate. It's a constitutional challenge invoking Guyana's constitutional right to a healthy environment, an amendment Janki herself helped write. Plaintiffs Dr. Troy Thomas and Quedad DeFreitas argue that the governme...

One person in Guyana understands both the inner workings of Big Oil and the intracacies of Guyanese governmental law better than almost anyone. Melinda Janki was raised in Guyana, but went to Oxford University and then worked as in-house counsel for oil giant BP before making her way back to Guyana. She returned home with a mission to help strengthen the country's environmental laws. In 2018, she...

After a year of pressure from local press and civil groups, the Guyanese government finally released its oil contract with ExxonMobil to the public. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) calls it an unfair deal for Guyana. Some local leaders implore the government to renegotiate the contract, but others say that's a fool's errand and fighting the contract should be done in court. Additional resour...

Five years ago, Kiana Wilburg was a new reporter when ExxonMobil executives and Guyanese government officials announced they had found oil 40 miles offshore. Wilburg and her newsroom had to rapdly learn about the oil industry and this suddenly influential company that was now in their country. They were left with one question: what kind of a deal had their country signed onto? Visit https://brilli...

On paper, the small South American country of Guyana is the fastest-growing economy in the world, thanks to its oil boom. The country started shipping barrels of oil in 2019. Hotels are popping up all over its capital city. Historic homes are being turned into condos for visiting oil execs. But average citizens say they aren’t benefiting from the boom like they thought they would. And one lawyer i...

In this special sneak preview of our next season, we hear from Melinda Janki, a lawyer who's fighting to keep her home country of Guyana from becoming one of the world's largest carbon bombs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The House Oversight Committee wrapped its investigation into climate disinformation, publishing a tranche of revealing internal documents on how the world's largest oil companies have misled the public about their committements to energy transition. Representative Ro Khanna , who helped spearhead the investigation, joins us to discuss. Additional resources: The Intercept   Learn more about yo...

November brought two seismic developments in climiate ligation: the first-ever climate RICO was filed on behalf of 16 Puerto Rican municipalities, plus a cohort of scientists and researches, including NASA scientist James Hansen, sued the EPA to compel them to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Toxic Substances Control Act.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Loss and damage financing was a big focus at COP 27, and ultimately one of the few things global negotiators could agree on. Wealthy nations finally acknowledged their responsibility to compensate for climate damages. But media coverage of loss and damage has left out crucial context, including how flawed the fossil fuel industry's "fossil fuels = development" myth is.   Learn more about your...

COP 27 is underway in Egypt and the stakes have never been higher. So why is longtime fossil fuel industry greenwasher Hill + Knowlton handing media for the conference?  We look back on the firm's longstanding history crafting science denial and delay strategies for tobacco and fossil fuel companies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/list...

In just over a week, heads of state and negotiaters will meet at COP 27, the annual UN Climate Conference, to discuss a path forward on climate action. Historically, these events bring about a wave of climate disinformation. A new report walks journalists and communicators through how they can counter disinformation without amplifying it.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since Standard Oil of New Jersey (now ExxonMobil) began funding universities in the late 1940s, oil companies have invested heavily in higher education, not just to fund engineering programs climate science, but crucially to fund the public policy centers and economics programs that shape policy solutions. Fossil Free Research, a new group formed by many of the same students who pushed their campu...

Taped live at the Harvard Faculty Club, Naomi Oreskes speaks to her forthcoming book The Big Myth , focused on the origin story behind free-market ideology, followed by a panel discussion on how to widen climate accountability to include not only oil companies but also the other industries and enablers that have obstructed climate action. Additional resources: UCS Science Hub for Climate Litigatio...

Three Congressional hearings shed a light on climate disinformation this week, with one looking at oil companies' role, another looking at the role of PR firms, and a third looking at corporate attempts to limit the free speech of environmental activists.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From its state treasurer to its attorney general to its Senator, West Virginia is leading the charge on climate obstruction and dismantling environmental regulation.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

West Virginia vs. EPA was just the beginning of climate cases before the Supreme Court this year. From question the SEC's disclosures to major Clean Water challenges, there's more to come. EarthJustice's Sam Sankar and Kirti Datla join to give us a preview of what's coming up.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jesse Coleman , senior investigator for Documented, walks us through an eye-opening investigation into the State Financial Officers Federation, an obscure group organizing Republican state treasurers in the fight against "woke capital." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) came up in the latest IPCC report and the summary and report itself tell a different story. The summary is vastly more positive about the potential of this tech (thanks in no small part to influence from Saudi Arabia and the United States), so we're looking at the complete picture of what the report actually says about it. Nikki Reisch and Carroll Muffett from the Cent...

The Supreme Court is taking its time in releasing a ruling in the controversial West Virginia vs. EPA case. We explore the roots of the case, its position in rightwing judicial strategy, and what avenues for climate action would remain in a worst-case scenario.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jennie King , lead author on a new report on climate disinformation on the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, discusses the reports findings, including how culture warriors—including 16 key superspreaders—have embraced climate denial and disinformation.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.