Ashley Braun

Trump EPA Abandons Climate Working Group Report in Endangerment Finding Repeal Emails from the hand-picked, secretive group of climate crisis deniers revealed flaws in their methods and “animus” toward leading scientists.

Quite a good article by @desmog.com about the DOE Climate Working Group report. Well done, @sharonkelly.bsky.social.

www.desmog.com/2026/02/13/t...

What we mean when we say the oil industry's "toxic wastewater" which can — and very likely does — get into people's drinking water.

More excellent reporting from @readfrontier.bsky.social and @propublica.org on what happens when the public, legislators, and regulators grapple with the legacy of historic oil and gas pollution and toxic wastewater, the amount of which only grows by the day.

The Climate Working Group was hand-picked by Energy Secretary Chris Wright "for their rigor, honesty, and willingness to elevate the debate." We see their actual process in hundreds of pages of emails and documents, including attacks on mainstream scientists and institutions and rushed review.

It’s expected to be published in the federal register on Tuesday, according to sources, from what I’m hearing.

“That level of warming would result in the loss of nearly all coral reefs and significant sea level rise that would overwhelm coastal communities.”

Trump’s EPA Just Used the Clean Air Act to Prop up Coal Power The Environmental Protection Agency threw out Colorado’s entire haze reduction plan, in what critics called ‘illegal’ and a possible warning to other states not to close fossil fuel plants.

Maybe you've heard about Energy Sec. Chris Wright and the DOE declaring "energy emergencies" to keep coal plants open? Now the EPA's using the Clean Air Act to do something similar in Colorado, with implications beyond. @joefassler.bsky.social for @desmog.com 👉
www.desmog.com/2026/02/09/t...

"the [economic] models assume the future will behave like the past, despite the burning of fossil fuels pushing the climate system into uncharted territory." "Investors should also speed up the move away from fossil fuels as a fiduciary duty to avoid large future losses, said Campanale."

Donate to Support for Washington Post international employees, organized by Michelle Lee Among the hundreds of journalists laid off by The Washington Post on … Michelle Lee needs your support for Support for Washington Post international employees

You can help cover rent, legal guidance, relocation to a new or safer country, and other urgent transition needs for former Washington Post international employees not covered by Guild protections, in places from Cairo to Mexico City. www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...

Whew, Upton, what era were you writing this book?

Q&A: Tech Billionaires’ AI Space Empire Fantasies Are ‘An Insidious Form of Climate Denial’ Science journalist Adam Becker speaks with DeSmog about how Silicon Valley tech billionaires have invented new forms of greenwashing and climate denial in their quest for ever-more fantastic technolog...

You know who isn't backing off right now? @desmog.com Just today, we published Rei Takver's Q&A with @adambecker.bsky.social about how Silicon Valley tech billionaires, those one time climate saviors, have invented new forms of greenwashing and climate denial 👀 www.desmog.com/2026/02/04/q...

Smart take as usual from @sammyroth.bsky.social on what the WaPo layoffs mean for climate reporting and democracy more broadly www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...

Bezos orders deep job cuts at 'Washington Post' The Washington Post embarked on severe cuts despite appeals by the newsroom to owner Jeff Bezos. The paper is to narrow its focus largely to politics and national security.

My heart goes out to all the great Washington Post journalists who lost their jobs today. www.npr.org/2026/02/04/n...

Also, your Friday reminder that some birds are parasites (!) and just say no to parenting—but can teach us a lot about how species recognition works

Update: A judge ruled it was illegal when DOE “Secretary Chris Wright handpicked five researchers who reject the scientific consensus on climate change to work in secret on a sweeping government report on global warming.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/c...

Federal agents arrest journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for filming protest at St. Paul church • Minnesota Reformer Federal agents arrested independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where a pastor is also an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enf...

“Federal agents arrested independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where a pastor is also an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” minnesotareformer.com/briefs/feds-...

Trump’s biggest climate rollback stalls over fears it will lose in court Trump officials have delayed finalizing the repeal of the agency’s “endangerment finding” over concerns the proposal is too weak to withstand a court challenge.

"The White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which reviews agency regulations, has expressed concerns over the strength of the scientific and economic analysis of the proposed repeal, the people said." www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

After Decades of Deflection, ExxonMobil Moves to Reshape Global Climate Accounting For decades, ExxonMobil argued consumers, not oil giants, should take responsibility for fossil fuel pollution. It’s now backing Carbon Measures’ accounting scheme, which moves pollution “liabilities”...

yet another example from @desmog.com of how fossil asset owners fixate on "managing tons" thru carbon accounting to distract from the REAL problem: burning fossil fuels.

I write about why managing tons is doomed to fail extensively in my new book Existential Politics (link in bio).

Exxon-Backed Coalition Challenges How Companies Account for Emissions. Some Say It Could Stop Them From Decarbonizing. Leading climate figures argue the “E-ledgers” approach absolves businesses of their climate responsibilities.

And to complement this reporting, check out this @wsj.com story on Carbon Measures and climate leaders' critiques of its efforts to decarbonize, featuring a quote from @desmog.com's own Brendan DeMelle www.wsj.com/articles/exx...

After Decades of Deflection, ExxonMobil Moves to Reshape Global Climate Accounting For decades, ExxonMobil argued consumers, not oil giants, should take responsibility for fossil fuel pollution. It’s now backing Carbon Measures’ accounting scheme, which moves pollution “liabilities”...

The oil major and its affiliates for years have argued that consumers, not polluters, should take responsibility for oil and air pollution. @sharonkelly.bsky.social lays out the evidence in a timeline of industry documents, from the 1960s to 2020s. Dive in 👉 www.desmog.com/2026/01/23/e...

But ExxonMobil is simultaneously suing in California over the state's current climate disclosure laws, arguing "those frameworks send the counterproductive message that large companies are uniquely responsible for climate change." Critics say it's "a transparent delay tactic.”

Now ExxonMobil has joined the Carbon Measures coalition in an effort to reshape global climate accounting standards. The coalition says they "are focused on reducing the carbon intensity of the products responsible for the majority of global emissions."

“Pollution is everybody’s business, because essentially all of it results from the activities of men working to satisfy the needs and desires of men." --1970 report by Imperial Oil, Exxon’s Canadian affiliate. www.desmog.com/wp-content/u...

After Decades of Deflection, ExxonMobil Moves to Reshape Global Climate Accounting For decades, ExxonMobil argued consumers, not oil giants, should take responsibility for fossil fuel pollution. It’s now backing Carbon Measures’ accounting scheme, which moves pollution “liabilities”...

For decades, ExxonMobil argued consumers, not oil giants, should take responsibility for fossil fuel pollution. It’s now backing a new accounting scheme which moves climate pollution “liabilities” to buyers’ books. @sharonkelly.bsky.social has the story for @desmog.com www.desmog.com/2026/01/23/e...

"Saudi Aramco was the biggest state-controlled polluter and ExxonMobil was the largest investor-owned polluter."

Got Beef With Cowbirds? This Researcher Wants to Change Your Mind The nest parasites get a bad rap for making other birds raise their young, but study by study, Mark Hauber and his “Cowbird Lab” have revealed a species worthy of respect.

Have you ever heard of a parasitic bird? This researcher's dedicated his life to studying these often maligned birds and how they help us better understand big questions like how a bird even knows which species it is. (Seems obvious yet...) My latest for @audubon.org www.audubon.org/magazine/res...

Here's my deep dive on the serious homeowners insurance situation that Idaho is facing and some possible ways forward. The reporting forced me to rethink some of my assumptions, and I hope it helps folks better understand this serious problem. www.boisestatepublicradio.org/politics-gov...

Battle Over Tariff Power Pits Trump Against Koch Network Charles Koch’s fortunes were fueled by importing Canadian oil. Now a major Koch-funded law firm seeks to limit Trump’s tariff powers.

Charles Koch built his fortune importing Canadian oil—with Koch Inc importing more than a billion barrels of foreign oil into the US since 2015. Now a Koch-funded law firm is taking Trump's tariffs to the Supreme Court. @sharonkelly reports:

🧐 I suppose it has to do with how much you got tracked/your privacy was breached and I shouldn’t take this personally

It seems impossible for non-Indians to fully grasp the meaning or importance of this complete contrast to the non-Indian perspective of “food production” and “food consumption.” Instead, the significance of American Indian relationships with the natural world, is at best, lost in overglamorized and essentialized characterizations of Noble Savages and at worst, entirely invisible. To comprehend and acknowledge Native relationships with food and cultural use species would require non-Natives to recognize not only the depth of human of the human scale of Native American genocide but also the fact that this genocide has been an onslaught of against a spiritual order that supported and governed an entire field of ecological, social, and political relationships. If traditional ecological knowledge and management has made the Klamath what it is today, racism and cultural genocide are now leading to environment decline. In short, the view from the river is a view into a world of responsibilities and interconnections, it is a view into hidden stories of structural genocide and ongoing colonialism, and it is a view that reveals profound struggle and creative, sustained resistance.

Going down a rabbit hole for a feature I’m writing on Indigenous fire 🔥 and ended up with Kari Marie Norgaard’s book “Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Colonialism, Nature & Social Action,” a case study on the Karuk Tribe in NW California. This right here about sums it up: