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It's Earth Day 2021 and the first Congressional hearing of the day is focused on fossil fuel subsidies. Their elimination was written into Biden's infrastructure bill, and House Democrats want to make sure that provision stays in the bill. Today's hearing will detail what those subsidies are, why getting rid of them is critical to climate action, and how the government can pull it off without raising the cost of living for average Americans. Watch the hearing at 10am ET: https://oversight.house.gov/legislation/hearings/on-the-role-of-fossil-fuel-subsidies-in-preventing-action-on-the-climate-crisis

Steven Donziger, the American attorney we profiled in S5 is scheduled for trial May 10th, but his lawyers have filed another motion to dismiss, alleging vindictive prosecution. Karen Savage joins for an update on this story.

We talked about rights of nature a bit in the Ecuador-Chevron season, the Latin American country was the first in the world to integrate the concept of rights of nature in its Constitution. Now the Constitutional Court is reviewing its first rights of nature case. U.S. communities are pursuing the idea as well, and the fossil fuel industry is trying to block rights of nature laws from ever passing. Josh Boaz Pribanic and Melissa Troutman, co-founders of Public Herald join to talk about their new documentary on the rights of nature, Invisible Hand.Check out Invisible Hand: https://www.invisiblehandfilm.com/premiere/

The Biden Administration has rolled out its Build Back Better plan and it includes a lot of progressive wishlist items, but the left is still pushing for more scale. The THRIVE Act, reintroduced by Sen Markey and Rep Dingell last month is what they're pushing towards and Peoples Action Climate Justice director Kaniela Ing joins to walk us through the asks, and what he's hearing from folks on the ground.Learn more:https://www.thriveagenda.com/https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-rep-dingell-reintroduce-thrive-resolution-to-build-back-economy-following-coronavirus-pandemichttps://peoplesaction.org/

Local activists and legislators have been fighting the Enbridge natural gas compressor in Weymouth for years. It's too close to residents and businesses, and poses too many health risks to a community that's already borne the burden of too much pollution, they say. The project was approved by FERC in 2019, built and became operational in 2020. Then it had an emergency shutdown. And another. Now FERC is considering the unprecedented move of re-thinking its permit, a decision that could have broad ramifications.

Fossil fuel-backed anti-protest laws have been passed in 14 states and are making their way through statehouses in several more states, including six different bills in Minnesota, the only state with a big pipeline fight this year: Line 3. Researcher Connor Gibson joins to talk us through how this all started and where it's at.Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pipeline-protest-laws-coronavirus_n_5e7e7570c5b6256a7a2aab41 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fossil-fuel-protest_n_602c1ff6c5b6c95056f3f6af https://montanafreepress.org/2021/02/24/increasing-penalties-for-damaging-energy-infrastructure/ https://grassrootbeer.substack.com/p/a-refinery-lobbyist-told-kansas-legislators https://grassrootbeer.substack.com/p/a-refinery-lobbyist-told-kansas-legislators

When a report makes oil and gas companies—and the politicians they help elect—this mad, you know the author is on to something. Economist Sean O'Leary, with the Ohio River Valley Institute, joins us to talk about his new report, which found that the local economic benefit of fracking to communities in the Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia gas corridor was slim to none.

A special presentation of the podcast Hot Take, featuring investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz on all the many ways oil, war, and climate change intersect.Read more:https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/light-sweet-crude-a-former-us-ambassador-peddles-influence-in-afghanistan/https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/the-new-war-for-afghanistans-untapped-oil/https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/why-rex-tillerson-could-be-americas-most-dangerous-secretary-of-state/Subscribe to the Hot Take newsletter: http://realhottake.substack.com/subscribe

Stanford researcher Ben Franta joins to talk about a bombshell new discovery: the American Petroleum Institute not only knew about climate change back in the 70s, it started pushing climate denial as early as 1980.Read Ben's article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09644016.2020.1863703

Donziger is still on house arrest and disbarred, the settlement seems impossible to collect, now what? In this episode we look at what this case says about accountability and the power of oil companies, and what options remain for the Ecuadorians seeking justice.Support our work: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chevron makes good on its promise to fight the Ecuadorian judgement until hell freezes over ... and then fight it out on the ice. Donziger loses his appeal of the RICO judgement, then finds himself facing contempt charges and disbarment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Corruption charges against both the Ecuadorian judge and the American judge fly as the RICO gets underway.Support our work: patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chevron's legal team shocks the Ecuadorian plaintiffs with a massive racketeering claim in the U.S. alleging fraud, witness tampering, and even bribery.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chevron's attorneys go after Joe Berlinger, the filmmaker behind the documentary about the case, Crude. They subpoena his outtakes, kicking off a years-long First Amendment battle.Support our work: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new report from Carbon Tracker finds that the fossil fuel industry is pinning its hopes on a plastic boom—and try as it might to spur that demand, it's just not materializing. Report author Kingsmill Bond joins us to discuss.Read the full report here: https://carbontracker.org/reports/the-futures-not-in-plastics/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York District Court Judge Loretta Preska has denied repeated requests to delay Donziger's criminal contempt trial until at least one of his lawyers can be present. Barring any last-minute changes, he'll stand trial Monday, November 9th, after which he could be sent to jail for six months. In this ep, reporter Karen Savage brings us the latest and we hear from attorneys Lauren Regan and Ronald Kuby about what sort of precedent this sets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The case takes a bizarre turn with a sting operation, U.S. subpoenas, accusations of fraud and bribery, and finally a verdict in Ecuador. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the Ecuadorian plaintiffs racking up good press and an endorsement from the country's president, Chevron kicks things up a notch, bringing on new lawyers and PR firms to tell a very different story.Support our work: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Generation Green New Deal, Drilled host Amy Westervelt co-hosts with Sam Eilertsen to look at what happened to block climate action in the 90s and and 2000s, why various fossil fuel industry strategies worked at the time, and what makes the youth climate movement's approach different and more effective.Check out Generation Green New Deal wherever you get your pods! https://www.podlink.to/generationgnd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In September 2009, Chevron filed an international arbitration claim against the government of Ecuador over the Lago Agrio case. In the years since the company has pointed to the decisions of that arbitral panel as something akin to court decisions, but they're not—arbitral tribunals exist to help companies protect their profits, and are largely conducted in secret. This system has been quietly shaping environmental and climate policy for years. In this episode, expert Marcos Orellana walks us through this shadowy system, this case in particular, and what it all means for global climate action.Support our work: patreon.com/drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices