Tom Becker hosts this episode of the Mole, which includes the following segments:
The Great Lie: U.S. Investor Owned Utilities including PGE and Pacific Power were informed by their researchers and independent scientists as early as 1968 that burning fossil fuels could generate global warming disaster. The Utilities cooperated with their fossil fuel industry partners to suppress this research, and indeed contributed to climate change denial propaganda efforts. And as alternative solar and wind energy developed and became advantageous to homeowners, the Utilities used their billions for political contributions and lobbyists to enact laws and gain Public Utility Commission rulings to stifle the building out of local sun and wind energy. PGE and Pacific Power were particularly influential such that Oregon is well behind California and Washington in alternative energy development. Bill Resnick talks to Dave Anderson, the policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute that uncovered much of this history.
War on Cuba: Luisa Martinez interviews Daniel Montero, journalist and filmmaker of the documentary series. The War on Cuba focuses on the devastating impact of the generations-long illegal US economic war on Cuba. Montero is also part of a media outlet titled Belly of the Beast, investigative journalism that exposes the political and economic interest driving US policy and its impact on Cubans home and abroad. Luisa interviewed Daniel thru the ZOOM telecommunications platform which is subject to illegal US sanctions and was operated thru a Virtual Private Network or VPN. This resulted in at times poor audio quality.
The Crimes of Climate Change: A panel of criminal and environmental lawyers from around the world has created a legal definition for ecoside as the basis of a push to criminalize mass damage and destruction of ecosystems. In their Left and the Law segment, Jan Haaken and Mike Snedeker discuss this campaign and the potential political use of the International Criminal Court to pursue major polluters and destroyers of the planet.
- KBOO