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Wednesday, December 25, 2024

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Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of the federal death row; Mississippi group working in 71 counties to end homelessness in Mississippi; Farmers no longer feeling Farm Bill anguish, but relief might be fleeting; Addressing Montana's expanding 'news deserts.'

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President-elect Donald Trump considers reclaiming Panama Canal. Lawmakers are uncertain Trump's cabinet will help everyday Americans and, advocates feel Biden must reconsider clemency actions.

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Rural folks could soon be shut out of loans for natural disasters if Project 2025 has its way, Taos, New Mexico weighs options for its housing shortage, and the top states providing America's Christmas trees revealed.

Report exposes donors funding climate change disinformation in NC

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Monday, October 14, 2024   

As North Carolina deals with record-breaking heat, hurricanes and prolonged drought linked to a changing climate, a new report showed how American taxpayers are subsidizing disinformation about climate change.

Chuck Collins, co-founder of the Climate Accountability Research Project and the report's co-author, said people with ties to the fossil fuel industry are using tax-deductible donations to bankroll groups trying to block action on climate change.

"There's 137 organizations that are actively involved in promoting climate disinformation, challenging the science, sowing doubt, blocking alternatives," Collins explained. "Their goal is to run out the clock and keep extracting their profits."

The report found between 2020 and 2022, such organizations received nearly $6 billion in tax-deductible donations, which are entirely legal under the U.S. tax code. The U.S. Supreme Court has also ruled financial contributions deserve the same First Amendment protections as speech, at least in political campaigns.

Collins argued because wealthy donors are essentially pushing the burden of building and maintaining roads, schools and other essential services onto other taxpayers, the public deserves to know who they are.

"They're opting out of paying their taxes, so the rest of us do have a public interest in knowing how that money is being used," Collins contended. "And whether it's being used in a way that influences Congress and influences public policy, and takes us down a road that we may not want to go down."

Many donors are now listed online at ClimateCriminals.org, which also features a countdown to a deadline set in Paris to cut fossil fuel emissions in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

Collins pointed out many more donors remain anonymous by contributing through groups, including donor-advised funds. He believes increasing transparency is important in removing barriers to serious climate action.

"We should know who is blocking our ability to respond in a timely way to climate change," Collins asserted. "We should hold those people accountable."


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