Lee Wasserman

Inside Trump’s Unorthodox Climate Attacks in Courts Nationwide

Oil industry & its captive allies in government go into anaphylactic shock when facing climate accountability. While communities pay financially & with their health, companies make record profits. Quite a business model. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/c...

Law Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind Groups

Academic freedom fighters are staying strong in the face of seek & destroy fossil allies. Thank you @timmonsroberts.bsky.social

Law Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind Groups www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...

Abbott says megafloods are “just part of nature.” The fossil fuel industry disagrees. One month before the Texas floods, gas industry representatives gathered to discuss how to protect themselves from worsening extreme weather.

Guess this comes under the category “do what I say, not what I do.” www.exxonknews.org/p/abbott-say...

Lovely project & metaphor.

Oil Companies Are Sued Over Death of Woman in 2021 Heat Wave

An important moment in climate accountability — first wrongful death case against oil companies filed. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/c...

New Study Could Bolster Climate Laws to Make Polluters Pay Vermont was the first state to try to hold polluters accountable for climate disasters. New research aims to assign specific responsibility.

New breakthrough climate attribution study suggests that for heat alone, Chevron’s emissions, for example, are responsible for trillions in damages. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/c...

White House doesn’t recognize Federalism when it comes to states trying to protect their citizens from the climate catastrophe many oil companies knew was coming decades ago. now--https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/protecting-american-energy-from-state-overreach/

She Inspired Laws to Hold the Fossil Fuel Industry Accountable. Now She’s a Target. A conservative group is suing for emails of a law professor who helped create legislation to force oil, gas and coal companies to pay for climate damage.

Sometimes it seems the fossil fuel industry & their allies spend more time seeking & drilling climate advocates than oil & gas. Sad.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/c...

Opinion | What Are You Supposed to Do With Climate Numbers Like These? A provocative new book asks what we owe one another in a heating world.

"In his new book... the legal scholar @casssunstein.bsky.social cites one estimate that, since 1990, carbon from the world’s five largest emitters is responsible for $6 trillion in income loss around the world." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/o...

Next steps for 'Climate Superfund Act' implementation Feb. 13, 2025 - New York's groundbreaking law intended to make large polluters pay billions for climate resiliency projects is tied up in the courts, but we still wanted to consider what implementatio...

You can learn more about NY's groundbreaking climate superfund act in this interview I did w/Capitol Press Room. Thank you Gov Hochul, @lizkrueger.bsky.social & @jeffreydinowitz81.bsky.social--this is what climate leadership looks like! capitolpressroom.org/2025/02/13/n...

Cecile Richards, Former Planned Parenthood President, Dies at 67 Ms. Richards oversaw the United States’ largest provider of reproductive health care and sex education from 2006 to 2018.

The opportunities I had to engage with Cecile were always filled with light & possibilities. And she stood up to bullies who threatened those less powerful with grace & tenacity. What a legacy.
Cecile Richards, Former Planned Parenthood President, Dies at 67 www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/u...

@govkathyhochul.bsky.social “I signed the Climate Change Superfund Act … and … big corporate polluters who should pay … instead of New York taxpayers. And every other state should follow our lead.”

Couldn't agree more!

Supreme Court Denies Certiorari in Climate Tort Suits Today the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Sunoco LP v. Honolulu and Shell PLC v. Honolulu, two petitions from oil companies seeking High Court

"Oil company defendants advance a preemption-by-penumbra argument." It didn't fly for SCOTUS.
reason.com/volokh/2025/...

Supreme Court declines to hear from oil and gas companies trying to block climate change lawsuits The Supreme Court is declining to hear an appeal from oil and gas companies trying to block lawsuits seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars in damage linked to climate change

SCOTUS denies cert. On to discovery & accountability for the horrific damage these companies have knowingly caused. abcnews.go.com/amp/US/wireS...

A (successful) test of the state-by-state approach! A day-after-Christmas present for the planet from Albany, New York

A serious day-after-Christmas present in New York, where great activism means the Empire State will be sending the bill for climate damages off to Big Oil. The Climate Superfund Bill has been signed!!
open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...

right!

Hochul Signs Law That Penalizes Companies for Greenhouse Gas Emissions The measure will seek to raise funds to pay for some of the damage caused by extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent because of the combustion of fossil fuels.

@govkathleenhochul.bsky.social is the first executive to answer the who-should-pay question decisively: climate polluters, not taxpayers.
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/n...

Hochul Signs Law That Penalizes Companies for Greenhouse Gas Emissions The measure will seek to raise funds to pay for some of the damage caused by extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent because of the combustion of fossil fuels.

Climate polluters paying for the damage they caused couldn’t be more fair. Excelsior! www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/n...

Smart guy...

It strikes me that the new admin throwing sand in the US auto industry’s gears as the Chinese companies speed away with global market share might not be the move, but maybe I’m missing something.

Once again, @doctorvive.bsky.social shoots & scores. Nothing but net.

Harris Staffers Went Rogue to Reach Black and Latino Voters in Philadelphia Worried that the campaign was neglecting voters of color in Philadelphia and other battleground cities, organizers secretly gathered at a Dunkin’ Donuts and elsewhere to get out the vote.

Maybe investing in community groups that serve & empower families & neighbors year round to improve lives & build true political power is a better social investment than this expensive, quadrennial circus. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/u...

The Israeli Investigator Who Delivered Dirt on Exxon’s Enemies Formerly a sleuth with the Manhattan DA’s office, Eitan Arusy is now caught up in a globe-spanning “hack-and-leak” probe.

So many bread crumbs between oil company allies and climate advocates you could feed a flock of geese.
www.wsj.com/business/eit...

Well deserved!

Exclusive: Exxon lobbyist investigated over hack-and-leak of environmentalist emails, sources say The FBI has been investigating a longtime Exxon Mobil consultant over the contractor's alleged role in a hack-and-leak operation that targeted hundreds of the oil company’s biggest critics, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The firm @exxonmobiloil.bsky.social hired was apparently involved in hacking us & advocates to avoid accountability for their decades of deception. www.reuters.com/business/ene...

“I did that,” to quote President Obama in reference to record extraction of oil & gas. Yeah, you really did.

EV Projects to Get $13 Billion in Federal Loans The financing for a factory in Georgia is part of a last-minute effort to establish climate policies before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.

One thing for sure, @jigarshahdc.bsky.social is a national treasure.
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/b...

Good point, but Kernza is actually a big breakthrough in turning annual, fossil-intensive crops (this case wheat), into perennial, more carbon-absorbing versions. Check it out at landinstitute.org

As a result, we always seem to be starting from the beginning in the effort to engage the public about the greatest threat humanity faces. Suboptimal.

The reality is that the vast majority of climate philanthropy has gone to support whatever Democratic leadership’s position is at that moment—including not talking about climate. Any pushing of them to be better has been mostly behind closed doors, leaving the public out of the conversation.