Climate Money Watchdog

Mark Z. Jacobson is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. Some describe him as the architect of the U.S. Green New Deal. He has authored books, textbooks and articles on transitioning to renewable energy. Recently co-authored the study, “ Low-Cost Solutions to Global Warming, Air Pollution, and Energy Insecurity for 145 Countries . Professor Jacobson came to ou...

Have you ever dreamed of an approach to carbon capture and sequestration that can be deployed anywhere, and has many years of demonstrated success? It turns out farmers have been employers using this technology – plants – for thousands of years. Dr. Jeff Creque is a co-founder of the Marin Carbon Project and the Carbon Cycle Institute , where he serves as Director of Rangeland and Agroecosystem Ma...

Mike Eisenfeld is San Juan Citizens Alliance Energy and Climate Program Manager Mike joined SJCA in 2006 following ten years as an environmental consultant in the Four Corners region . Mike works on energy issues including coal, oil/gas, air quality and public lands. He specializes in the National Environmental Policy Act , Federal Land Policy & Management Act , and Endangered Species Act comp...

Sarah “Poppy” Alexander is a partner in Constantine Cannon’s San Francisco office. She represents whistleblowers and government entities in qui tam  lawsuits , as well as under the various agency whistleblower programs including those administered by the Internal Revenue Service , Securities and Exchange Commission , The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ( FinCEN ),...

A former Assistant United States Attorney, Josh Russ is a principled and relentless advocate. In 2013, after practicing healthcare regulation and litigation at a large corporate law firm, Josh joined the firm of Reese Marketos . During his time as an associate there, Josh tried a jury trial on behalf of a plaintiff financial firm involving debt owed to his client under multiple loan instruments. T...

Kert Davies is the founder and director of Climate Investigations Center. He is a well-known researcher, media spokesperson and climate activist who has been conducting corporate accountability research and campaigns for more than 20 years. Davies was the chief architect of the Greenpeace web project ExxonSecrets , launched in 2004, which helped expose the oil giant ExxonMobil’s funding of organiz...

Sean Moulton is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Project on Government Oversight ( POGO ). We’ve invited Sean to discuss his recent report on how Increased Infrastructure Oversight Falls Short for the Biden Administration’s infrastructure law, while still being an important step forward. Sean explains how new oversight measures are implemented via executive order , which means they can easily be dis...

For years, activists, scientists and politicians have fought to get enough federal funding to make a start to slow climate change and stop the incessant temperature climb of the planet. Although the job of getting money is far from done, the first large tranche of appropriated money from the infrastructure law is starting to be spent. This  important money will only be  effective if it is spent we...

The cost of installing an electric vehicle (EV) charger can vary from  $400 to $150,000. Dave Mullaney of the RMI's Carbon-Free Mobility team takes us through their recent report - Reducing EV Charging Infrastructure Costs - to help us understand why, and how these costs can be reduced. If you've ever installed an electric oven or clothes dryer where there wasn't one before, you hav...

This week we meet with Bob Bauman, a veteran government investigator and auditor, to discuss how the Department of Energy (DoE) wasted nearly half a billion dollars on failed carbon capture and storage (CSS) technology demonstration projects. The failed CSS projects are described in a report released by the Government Accountability Office in December 2021 called CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE: Action...

This week we're joined by Mark Dyson , Managing Director for Carbon-Free Electricity at the Rocky Mountain Institute to discuss his recent report, Reimagining Grid Resilience .  Mark describes how investing in distributed energy resources, such as "behind-the-meter" photovoltaic solar  panels both do more to improve the resilience of the grid and provide carbon and cost reduction be...

Eric Thorson has extensive experience exercising federal government oversight, including  as Treasury IG for 11 years, a Congressional oversight Investigator serving on 3 different committees over 10 years. His perspective is also deepened by having been a successful entrepreneur. He is now lecturer at College of William & Mary . We discuss the importance of oversight in the context of governm...

California Contra Costa County Supervisor Gioia has been elected and re-elected with overwhelming margins five times, and represents the most urban part of the county, which lies directly north of Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco.  He considers himself an environmental leader, and serves as the Vice-Chair of the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority . We spoke with Supervisor Gioia about past...

Our guest for this podcast is Danielle Brian , Executive Director of the Project on Government Oversight ( POGO ). POGO is a nonpartisan independent government watchdog whose investigations have chronicled lessons learned, missed and lost across huge government programs addressing the cold war, two Gulf wars, 911, the war in Afghanistan, the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID 19 pandemic. Daniell...

Bill McKibben is a founder of Third Act , which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parli...

In this introductory episode, we lay out our mission: Climate Money Watchdog is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power with a focus on government expenditures related to climate change mitigation and environmental remediation. When the government and private organizations fail the public or silence those who report wrongdoing, we will be...