Published: Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Exxon climate collage. Credits: Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News (illustration); The Rockefeller Archive Center (photo & Standard Oil); Defendant of Exxon Mobile Corp (text); Francis Chung/E&E News (Exxon sign) Exxon Mobil Corp. officials blame the heirs of its founder, John D. Rockefeller, of funding a string of climate lawsuits against the oil company. Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News (illustration); The Rockefeller Archive Center (photo and Standard Oil); Defendant of Exxon Mobil Corp (text); Francis Chung/E&E News (Exxon sign)
Exxon Mobil Corp. has a strategy for firing back at supporters of climate change litigation against the oil giant: Blame the Rockefellers.
Taylor Wizner
Taylor Wizner is the health and tourism reporter for IPR News. She joined IPR in 2019 after working at Detroit s Public Radio station, WDET. She graduated from Columbia University s Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Michigan. When not sharing the news of the day, she enjoys spending time in northern Michigan s beautiful woods and dunes, often with her dog in tow.
By Chris Riotta
The federal government will relax payback requirements for projects addressing urgent cybersecurity, pandemic response and IT modernization needs that draw on the $1 billion addition to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) included in the American Rescue Plan Act.
In a joint statement, the Office of Management and Budget and General Services Administration announced on Tuesday that the updated model will foster cross-agency collaboration and allow the TMF Board to focus on four proposal categories, including modernizing high-priority systems, cybersecurity, public-facing digital services and cross-government services and infrastructure.
The TMF, a revolving fund of no-year money, was established in 2017 but its capitalization spiked from $150 million to more than $1 billion with the passage of the Rescue Act this March. The fund was created with strict reimbursement requirements to allow for continual funding of new projects. At a recent Senate hearing, cu
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Physicist Steven Koonin, a former BP chief scientist and Obama administration energy official, seeks to downplay climate change risk in his new book, “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What it Doesn’t and Why it Matters.”
His critics say he often draws general conclusions from specific slices of data or uncertainties (sometimes signaled by key words or phrases.) As a result, they say, his statements are frequently misleading, and often leave the reader with the incorrect impression climate scientists are hiding the truth.
“Identifying, quantifying, and reducing uncertainties in models and observations is an integral part of climate science,” said atmospheric scientist Benjamin Santer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “The climate science community discusses uncertainties in an open and transparent way, and has done so for decades. It is simply untrue that Prof. Koonin is confronting climate scientists with unpleasant facts they h
A New Book Feeds Climate Doubters, but Scientists Say the Conclusions are Misleading and Out of Date
Steven Koonin, who during Trump’s presidency proposed having a “red team, blue team” climate debate, argues that climate action’s “certain downsides” outweigh the “uncertain” benefits.
May 4, 2021
Steven Koonin, then-under secretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy, speaks at the 2011 CERAWEEK conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Friday, March 11, 2011. Credit: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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The most ardent foes of climate policy in the Trump administration dreamed of staging a grand climate science debate. They called it a “red team/blue team” exercise, a term borrowed from military strategy games, and it was designed to test the proposition that fossil fuel pollution put the planet at risk.