{"id":17353,"date":"2016-02-03T21:30:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T02:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=17353"},"modified":"2016-02-03T21:30:30","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T02:30:30","slug":"senators-introduce-merchants-of-doubt-amendment-into-energy-bill-call-on-fossil-fuel-industry-to-end-climate-denial-and-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=17353","title":{"rendered":"Senators Introduce \u201cMerchants of Doubt\u201d Amendment Into Energy Bill, Call On Fossil Fuel Industry To End Climate Denial and Deception"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2016\/02\/03\/senators-introduce-merchants-doubt-amendment-energy-bill-call-fossil-fuel-industry-end-denial-and-deception\" target=\"_blank\">Senators Introduce \u201cMerchants of Doubt\u201d Amendment Into Energy Bill, Call On Fossil Fuel Industry To End Climate Denial and Deception<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-10276 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<header>\n<p class=\"submitted desktop-only\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/doubt-is-our-product.jpg?itok=2EQTMD6k\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"353\" \/><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"horizontal-social-bar horizontal-social-bar-top clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>Democratic\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span>\u00a0Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (<span class=\"caps\">RI<\/span>), Ed Markey (<span class=\"caps\">MA<\/span>) and Brian Schatz (<span class=\"caps\">HI<\/span>) introduced an amendment into the energy bill yesterday intended to express Congress\u2019s disapproval of the use of industry-funded think tanks and misinformation tactics aimed at sowing doubt about climate change\u00a0science.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/2016-02-02%20Merchants%20of%20Doubt%20Energy%20Bill%20Amendment%20%28%233200%29.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">amendment<\/a>\u00a0evokes the history of notorious anti-science efforts by the tobacco and lead industries to avoid accountability for the damage caused by their products, focusing similar ire on the fossil fuel industry\u2019s decades-long climate\u00a0cover-up.<\/p>\n<p>Although it doesn\u2019t name specific companies, the amendment is surely inspired by recent revelations about ExxonMobil\u2019s early and advanced knowledge of the role of fossil fuels in driving climate change \u2014 which was followed by the company\u2019s subsequent, unconscionable climate science denial\u00a0efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Just as tobacco and lead companies sowed doubt about the dangers of their products through the use of front groups and third-party experts, so did ExxonMobil \u2014 through its funding of a sophisticated network of denialists \u2014 work to deceive the public about climate science and the need for political action to end the fossil fuel\u00a0era.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent and damning #ExxonKnew revelations were published late in 2015 in investigative articles by both\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/content\/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken\" target=\"_blank\">InsideClimate News<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/graphics.latimes.com\/exxon-research\/\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Times<\/a>\u00a0in collaboration with the Columbia School of\u00a0Journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-<span class=\"caps\">VT<\/span>) joined the amendment as a co-sponsor once it was\u00a0introduced.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dquo\">\u201c<\/span>It is the sense of the Senate that according to peer-reviewed scientific research and investigative reporting, fossil fuel companies have long known about the harmful climate effects of their products,\u201d the amendment\u00a0reads.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senators Introduce \u201cMerchants of Doubt\u201d Amendment Into Energy Bill, Call On Fossil Fuel Industry To End Climate Denial and Deception Democratic\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Ed Markey (MA) and Brian Schatz (HI) introduced an amendment into the energy bill yesterday intended to express Congress\u2019s disapproval of the use of industry-funded think tanks and misinformation tactics aimed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12198,12197,1517,5317,3448,12196,327,4535,12195],"class_list":["post-17353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-brendan-demelle","tag-climate-deception","tag-climate-denial","tag-desmog-blog","tag-doubt","tag-energy-bill","tag-fossil-fuel-industry","tag-merchants-of-doubt","tag-us-senators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17354,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17353\/revisions\/17354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}