COMMON DREAMS: Top News: Could Taxing the Rich Lift Biden? CARBON CAPTURE IS A SCAM! NEIL CHATTERJEE FAILED FERC - QUESTION THIS!

 

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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 ■ Today's Top News  Over Apple's Objections, Oregon Governor Signs Nation's Strongest Right to Repair Law "Oregon becomes the first state to ban 'parts pairing,' which let companies like Apple decide when and how you replace parts." By Julia Conley Biden's Bid to Tax the Rich Could Be the 2024 Lift the President Needs New polling finds a majority of Americans across party lines support raising taxes on billionaires. By Thor Benson Groups Warn Gang Crackdown in El Salvador Has Led to Human Rights Crisis "Reducing gang violence by replacing it with state violence cannot be a success," said one Amnesty International official. By Julia Conley Revolving Door Spins as Ex-Fossil Fuel Regulator Joins Carbon Capture Firm "This move is intended to make sure policymakers continue to make bad bets on carbon capture ever working," said one critic. By Jessica Corbett CarbonCapture Inc. on Wednesday announced the appointment of Neil Chatterjee to its board of directors—sparking fresh criticism of technology to capture and store carbon dioxide, the former U.S. regulator, and the revolving door between government and industry. Chatterjee was appointed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2017 by then-President Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Chatterjee served as FERC's chair twice before his term expired in 2021. Prior to joining the commission, he advised U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on energy. "After greenlighting oil and gas expansion at FERC, Chatterjee is now capitalizing off of attempts to undo those harms," Hannah Story Brown, a senior researcher in climate and governance at the Revolving Door Project, told Common Dreams. "It would have been far less costly to the public interest and the public purse if Chatterjee had helped stanch the flow of carbon pollution into our atmosphere when he was in the position to." "After greenlighting oil and gas expansion at FERC, Chatterjee is now capitalizing off of attempts to undo those harms." Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said that "the so-called 'carbon capture' industry relies on billions of dollars in giveaways from the federal government, so it should not be a surprise that a company like this would add a Beltway insider to its board of directors." CarbonCapture Inc.'s statement on Chatterjee celebrates his "deep ties in Washington and across the industry," saying that "in his time on Capitol Hill and at FERC, he established a reputation as a bipartisan operator who built alliances and cut through red tape." The company's CEO, Adrian Corless, said that Chatterjee's "deep understanding of the energy landscape in the U.S. and abroad will be incredibly important as we source large amounts of clean energy in the face of grid expansion challenges and bottlenecks." The firm builds "deeply modular" direct air capture (DAC) machines, which "use solid sorbents that soak up atmospheric CO2 when cooled and release concentrated CO2 when heated," as its website details. "The captured CO2 can then be permanently stored underground or used to make synthetic fuels, low-carbon concrete, carbon black, or other industrial products that require clean CO2." Stressing the need to "decarbonize the atmosphere as quickly as possible," Chatterjee said Wednesday that "CarbonCapture's groundbreaking, modular direct air capture machines have put our country on the fast track to scale a proven solution at the speed and cost necessary to make a meaningful impact." Food & Water Watch agrees that the warming world requires swift and sweeping action on planet-heating pollution. Along with advocating for a rapid and just global phaseout of fossil fuels, the group prioritizes "calling foul on fake solutions" to the climate emergency. "The fossil fuel industries are eager to tout carbon waste sequestration and direct air capture because they bolster the dominance of dirty energy sources like oil and gas," Walsh told Common Dreams. "This is why they are called 'false solutions'—they delay the necessary actions to get off fossil fuels." Citing an International Energy Agency analyst in an article about the "major hurdles" that remain as DAC ramps up, Yale Environment 360reported last week that "about three-quarters of all globally captured CO2 (which comes mainly from industrial flue stacks) is currently being used for enhanced oil recovery," which involves injecting CO2 into wells to bury it and extract more oil. As a pair of Walsh's colleagues detailed for Food & Water Watch's website last year, other issues with DAC include the technology's high energy needs, toxic solvents, and risky storage options. "Carbon capture has a long history of failure in the real world, but these companies have had great success in securing billions in government handouts." "Carbon capture has a long history of failure in the real world, but these companies have had great success in securing billions in government handouts," Walsh said. In terms of Chatterjee's appointment, he added that "this move is intended to make sure policymakers continue to make bad bets on carbon capture ever working." As Story Brown pointed out, "Neil Chatterjee's prototypical spin of the revolving door, moving from pro-industry regulator to regulated industry, comes with added irony." "As a regulator, he positioned himself as preferring market-based 'solutions' over government mandates, subsidies, and regulations," she explained. "But all that skepticism apparently vanished when he joined the carbon capture business, whose only hope of profitability comes from government subsidies like those in the Inflation Reduction Act." Corless was among those who welcomed what Timecalled a "bonanza for the carbon capture industry" in the 2022 legislation. Shortly before President Joe Biden signed the bill, the CEO said that "it's going to make it easy for us to raise the capital to build the project earlier and to build it faster." However, it's not just the government that is bankrolling CarbonCapture Inc. and similar ventures, as Story Brown noted. "Neil Chatterjee hasn't left the lure of market magic behind," she said. "His firm has pre-sold millions in carbon removal credits so that energy-guzzling firms from Amazon to Aramco can greenwash their operations." Democratic Insider Rips 'Shocking' US Claim That Israel Is Following International Law "There is no time to spare in pulling back from this outrageous assertion by the State Department," said Center for American Progress president Patrick Gaspard. By Jake Johnson New Video Details Billionaire Trump Donors Bankrolling RFK Jr.'s Run "Kennedy's donors know that he'll never step foot in the White House, but that was never their goal. Their goal is to ensure that Trump does." By Brett Wilkins Some of the wealthiest people in America have spent millions of dollars to get RFK Jr. on the ballot. But they don’t want him to be president. They have another goal. We dug into the money trail with @briantylercohen to find out their end game. The video continues: Mellon, who hails from the 34th-richest family in America, and likened anti-poverty programs to slavery, has long been a significant Reopublican donor. He's given tens of millions to Republican congressional super PACs. He's generously funded Trump's super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., to the tune of $16.5 million over the span of just two years. He was even Trump's top donor in 2020, and it doesn't look like he's going to stop tossing money at Trump anytime soon. His last donation of $5 million to the pro-Trump PAC came on January 30, 2024. Just 22 days prior, he sent the same amount to the pro-Kennedy PAC, making it pretty clear that Timothy Mellon doesn't want Kennedy, he knows Kennedy can spoil a Biden win, so he's keeping him afloat. JOIN THE MOVEMENT As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. JOIN WITH US TODAY ■ More News CONGRATULATIONS ALABAMA! Democrat Flips Seat in Alabama House After Running on Abortion Rights Marilyn Lands, a Democratic candidate for a state House seat in Alabama, won a special election on Tuesday, defeating Republican Teddy Powell. Lands focused her campaign on reproductive rights, including support for access to in vitro fertilization and abortion. The election was for a seat in Madison City, and it was previously held by a Republican. "Today, Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation. Our legislature must repeal Alabama's no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the right to contraception," Lands said in a statement. Alabama has a strict abortion ban, and a February Alabama Supreme Court ruling declared that frozen embryos are people, imperiling access to in vitro fertilization in the state following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Lands' opponent supported the state's abortion ban. "This special election is a harbinger of things to come—Republicans across the country have been put on notice that there are consequences to attacks on IVF—from the bluest blue state to the reddest red, voters are choosing to fight for their fundamental freedoms by electing Democrats across the country," Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, told Politico. Democrats see Lands' win as a sign that supporting reproductive rights could continue to be a winner in November, even in deeply red states like Alabama. President Joe Biden voiced his support for access to IVF and abortion in his State of the Union address earlier this month. "Marilyn Lands' victory demonstrates that voters aren't going to sit idly by while MAGA Republicans lay the groundwork for a national abortion ban," Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement. Another State Department Official Resigns Over Biden Gaza Policy Support for Israel's War on Gaza Plummeting Among Key Biden Voters: Poll Cori Bush Demands Repeal of 'Zombie Statute' Weaponized by Anti-Abortion Zealots Rep. Cori Bush on Tuesday called for the repeal of a long-obsolete law that anti-abortion activists, lawmakers, and judges have worked to revive as part of their nationwide assault on reproductive rights. "The Comstock Act must be repealed," Bush (D-Mo.) wrote in a social media post on Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case brought by a group of anti-abortion doctors aiming to curtail access to mifepristone—a medication used in more than 60% of U.S. abortions. "Enacted in 1873, it is a zombie statute, a dead law that the far-right is trying to reanimate," Bush warned. "The anti-abortion movement wants to weaponize the Comstock Act as a quick route to a nationwide medication abortion ban. Not on our watch." Bush's office said she was the first member of Congress to demand the law's repeal since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the summer of 2022. The Comstock Act, which hasn't been applied in a century and was repeatedly narrowed following its enactment, prohibits the mailing of any "instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing" that "may, or can, be used or applied for producing abortion." Legal experts have described the dormant law as the "most significant national threat to reproductive rights." Given that "virtually everything used for an abortion—from abortion pills, to the instruments for abortion procedures, to clinic supplies—gets mailed to providers in some form," a trio of experts wrote earlier this year, the anti-abortion movement's "interpretation of the Comstock Act could mean a nationwide ban on all abortions, even in states where it remains legal." "Enforcing a Victorian-era law would be deeply unpopular and Democrats have a chance to sound the alarm, take action in both chambers, and run on it." The Biden Justice Department has argued that the Comstock Act "does not prohibit the mailing of certain drugs that can be used to perform abortions where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully." But the law has nevertheless been cited with growing frequency by far-right advocacy groups and judges following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In 2023, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas, Matthew Kacsmaryk, invoked the Comstock Act in a decision suspending the Food and Drug Administration's 2000 approval of mifepristone. In 2021, the FDA said it would allow patients to receive abortion medication by mail—which Kacsmaryk claimed the Comstock Act "plainly forecloses." That case, which has massive implications for abortion rights nationwide, is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. During oral arguments on Tuesday, Justices Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas "repeatedly invoked the Comstock Act," The Washington Postreported, "pressing lawyers about whether the 1873 federal law should apply to abortion drugs sent through the mail today." The justices' comments raised concerns that they could try to resurrect the Comstock Act in their coming ruling in the mifepristone case. "While the Biden administration has issued guidance saying that the federal government will not enforce the laws," the Post noted, "a future administration seeking to restrict abortion could choose to do so." Donald Trump, the former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, has expressed support for a national abortion ban. Jezebel's Susan Rinkunas wrote Tuesday that "enforcing a Victorian-era law would be deeply unpopular and Democrats have a chance to sound the alarm, take action in both chambers, and run on it." "We definitively have one lawmaker on board," Rinkunas added, referring to Bush. "Who's next?" VIEW ALL NEWS ■ Opinion Abortion Rights and the Cold, Dead Hand of Anthony Comstock Anti-abortion activists want to use the Comstock Act to ban all abortions in the nation, and most birth control pills and devices as a bonus. By Thom Hartmann As More Trucks Fill Our Roads, the EPA Must Act to Save Our Air A strong emissions standard for heavy-duty trucks that pushes trucking fleets towards electric vehicles is a win for the country, our bodies, and our kids. By Ben Jealous Intel Brags of $152 Billion in Stock Buybacks Over Last 35 Years. So Why Does It Need an $8 Billion Subsidy? What’s to stop the chip-making giant from shoveling taxpayer grants into more stock buybacks? By Les Leopold VIEW ALL OPINION Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams · PO Box 443 · Portland, ME 04112-0443 · USA Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 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