Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Big Oil is privately freaking out over Trumpism

You'd think that they of all people would be "walking on air," these days.
“Chaos.” “A disaster.” “Uncertainty.” “Very negative.”

That’s a sample of the reactions to Trump’s first few months published in the latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey, which gives executives from nearly 200 oil companies headquartered in Texas the chance to speak anonymously about burning issues inside the oil industry…

Big oil poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump’s re-election campaign and down-ballot GOP candidates last year, including an $80 million advertising spree — not counting undisclosed “dark money” funding. Fossil fuel fortunes have funded Project 2025 and its backers, alongside even more extreme far-right Trump-era policy blueprints.

But Trump’s tariffs, rising steel prices, and his sledgehammer approach to the administrative state are starting to unnerve oil and gas executives — at least in the anonymous survey conducted quarterly by the Dallas Fed. - DeSmog

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Trump pardoned a corporation

A largely overlooked item among the veritable flood of corrupt and disgraceful things that he's been doing. And note which kind of company was granted "mercy."
In what may have been a first, Trump pardoned a corporation. The company to earn that distinction was a cryptocurrency exchange sentenced to a $100 million fine for violating an anti-money laundering law.

The move surprised scholars of presidential pardons, which have traditionally been considered the domain of human beings. Several experts contacted by The Intercept said Trump appears to have acted within his powers, but they were unaware of any prior instances of corporations granted full pardons.

“There have been plenty of cases where presidents have remitted fines or forfeitures, or something else like that,” said Margaret Love, who served as U.S. pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997. “As far as I know, the president has never granted a full pardon to a corporation.” - The Intercept

Friday, April 4, 2025

Nasty, naughty words being banned by Trumpers

This is going on all across government thanks to that miserable witling at the top and the ridiculous boobs he has around him. I’m highlighting this example due to my interest in rural issues. ARS stands for Agricultural Research Service.
ARS is the division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tasked with providing the agricultural research, education and economic analysis that protects the health of the nation’s farmland, ensures the safety of the food we eat and develops solutions for diseases, disasters and other threats to the food supply. Most recently, it was operating over 600 research projects in 95 locations and had a $1.7 billion budget, which like the words it uses could now be on the chopping block and could significantly hamper the division’s ability to do its job…

The climate-related key terms being banned by the ARS include:

climate, climate change, climate-change, changing climate, climate consulting, climate models, climate model, climate accountability, climate risk, climate resilience, climate smart agriculture, climate smart forestry, climatesmart, climate science, climate variability, global warming, carbon sequestration, GHG emission, GHG monitoring, GHG modeling, carbon emissions mitigation, greenhouse gas emission, methane emissions, green infrastructure, sustainable construction, carbon pricing, carbon markets - Barn Raiser