Category Archives: Stay-at-home

Coronavirus, Covid 19, ExxonMobil, Fossil fuel industry lobby, Keeping Watch on Earth News, Koch Industries, Oil and gas industry, Stay-at-home

US critics of stay-at-home orders tied to fossil fuel funding

ExxonMobil, Koch and Mercer family are past funders of critics of stay-at-home orders as fossil fuel industry struggles amid lockdowns

ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, Texas. Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
The Guardian, by Emily Holden, 21 May 2020

Dozens of individuals and groups urging states to reopen amid the Covid-19 pandemic have historical financial ties to coal and oil and gas companies and conservative billionaires who have invested in climate disinformation.

Past funders of the current critics of stay-at-home orders include the bankrupt coal company Murray Energy and oil giant ExxonMobil, as well as Koch and Mercer family foundations, according to DeSmog, a group that tracks the money behind anti-climate-action campaigns.

Some of the contributions tallied are recent and others are at least five years old or older. ExxonMobil, for example, had broken ties with two of the groups in this story by 2006. There is no evidence that these companies and foundations are funding ongoing campaigns to reopen businesses.

But Brendan DeMelle, executive director of DeSmog, said the “information echo chamber” of interests downplaying both the climate crisis and the pandemic would not be what it is today without fossil fuel funding.

“While we don’t have direct evidence of specific grant money going for Covid denial, none of these operations would exist without their support over the years,” DeMelle said.

Donations to not-for-profit thinktanks are nearly impossible to track in real time because of a lag in reporting. It could take years to reveal which interests are currently funneling money to the groups helping to organize and expand shutdown protests. Even then, much of the funds could be hidden, donated anonymously through third-party not-for-profits, DeMelle said.

But DeSmog’s research shows many of the calls to end stay-at-home orders are coming from people associated with a wide-ranging network of organizations that together seek to limit the power of government and thwart intervention in business. That web of thinktanks was built years ago on contributions from the fossil fuel industry and conservative philanthropists.

Now, the fossil fuel industry is struggling amid government lockdowns aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus, and allowing people to move freely and return to work would help the sector by boosting energy demand.

As Donald Trump has advocated for a quicker reopening, often against the recommendations of his expert advisers, Republican voters’ views on how to handle the coronavirus have shifted substantially.

Just 43% say it is more important for the government to address the spread of the virus than the economy, down from 65% about a month ago. 

Trump’s calls for a quicker return to regular life have grown in popularity as they have been echoed throughout conservative media, often backed by thinktanks connected to the oil and coal industries.

In Wisconsin, where people have protested against a stay-at-home order, the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) filed an amicus brief with the state supreme court challenging the authority of the governor and the health department to continue to require people to stay home without sign-off from the Republican-controlled legislature. The court last week struck down the state’s order, calling it a “vast seizure of power”.

Charles Koch, the 20th-richest billionaire in the world, runs Koch Industries, which is involved in oil operations and energy-intensive industries. He and his late brother, David, have funded a network of conservative thinktanks.

Phil Kerpen, a Koch political operative, has argued that lockdowns are “unscientific”, and “medieval” and don’t save lives. Kerpen is president of American Commitment, a group that through 2016 has received at least $6.9m from Freedom Partners, which is partially funded by the Kochs, according to DeSmog. He was previously vice-president of AFP until 2012.

An AFP spokesman said the group has been “unambiguous” in its position that “the choice between full shutdown and immediately opening everything is a false choice”, and that it is working with officials and businesses to develop standards to “safely reopen the economy without jeopardizing public health”.

“Past grants do not define our position on reopening the economy – to suggest otherwise is disingenuous,” the AFP spokesman said. “None of the grants referenced have anything to do with stay-at-home orders and some of them were made many years ago.”

The Washington Post has reported that the Convention of States, a project launched in 2015 with money from the family foundation of the billionaire Republican donor Robert Mercer, has helped to coordinate activism against the stay-at-home orders around the country.

The conservative thinktank the Manhattan Institute – which over the years has taken at least $1m from ExxonMobil through 2018, according to the environment group Greenpeace USA, as well as $3.2m from Koch foundations and $2.2m from the Mercer Family Foundation – has published commentary questioning the value of shutdowns.

Brian Riedl, writing in the Manhattan Institute publication City Journal, called the shutdowns unsustainable, saying just a few months “will cost the government and the economy trillions of dollars”.

An ExxonMobil spokesman, Casey Norton, noted the company had not contributed to most of the groups in this story for years and said it was not pushing to lift stay-at-home orders.

“We continually evaluate our memberships and participation in organizations, and we do not contribute to organizations if we are not actively involved,” Norton said.

“As for return to work, our focus right now is on ensuring the safety and health of our entire workforce and to do our part to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus in the community.”

The Daily Caller, a news organization that has received $3.5m through 2017 from Koch foundations through its non-profit, has run articles suggesting Democrats want to kill the economy to keep Trump from getting re-elected.

“The mainstream media, which works for the Democrat party, wanted us shut down more, and for longer,” said opinion contributor Ron Hart.

Often, funding by the fossil fuel industry is less obvious and more difficult to follow. Bits and pieces of financial connections are revealed in regulatory and court filings, but many are hidden behind dark money groups.

One shutdown critic, author Alex Epstein, runs the for-profit thinktank the Center for Industrial Progress. Epstein has said his clients include the president of the Kentucky Coal Association and thecoaltruth.com, a project DeSmog links to employees of Alliance Coal.

Epstein in a podcast compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu and said “the purpose of the government is not to extend people’s lives. It’s to leave us free to live our lives as we judge best.”

Epstein told the Guardian his clients pay him “solely to advise them on *their* messaging”, and that “none of them have any influence on what I say publicly, on this or any other issue”.

Other critics of reopening are connected with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the American Council for Capital Formation and the Heartland Institute.

Chris Horner, a former fellow at CEI, in an op-ed in the Washington Times in March warned that “the current ‘coronavirus economy’ could become legally mandated, with no recovery permitted but only worsening, in the name of climate change”. Horner received funding from the coal company Alpha Natural Resources, according to a bankruptcy filing.

Joel Zinberg, of CEI, and Richard Rahn – who is chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth and board member of ACCF – have also criticized stay-at-home orders. Rahn has called Covid-19 the “Chinese Communist party virus”.

CEI received $2.1m from ExxonMobil through 2005 and has taken $200,000 from Murray Energy more recently. ACCF has gotten $1.8m from ExxonMobil through 2015 and $600,000 from Koch groups through 2015.

ACCF as an organization “has taken no position on the stay-at-home orders or any prospective timeline for reopening the economy”, said the group’s CEO, Mark Bloomfield.

The Heartland Institute, which denies the severity of anthropogenic climate change, has received $6.7m through 2017 from the Mercer Family Foundation, as well as $130,000 from coal company Murray Energy. The group received $25,000 from a Koch foundation for one specific project and got money from ExxonMobil until 2006.

A Heartland spokesman, Jim Lakely, has argued “leftists” are “stoking Covid-19 panic” and has called lockdown orders unconstitutional.

“What’s the time limit on being labeled ‘Koch-funded’ or ‘Exxon-funded’? A decade? Two? Also, who cares?” Lakely said. He did not respond to questions about Mercer funding.

California, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Economy, Stay-at-home

Gov. Newsom: 4 Stage Plan to Reopen California’s Economy

From Gov.ca.gov – Update on California’s Pandemic Roadmap, 4/28/20

Below is the powerpoint Governor Newsom used at his noon press conference today to outline the process for California’s road to modifying stay-at-home orders and re-opening the businesses and workplaces.  A good summary can be found at CBS8 San Diego.  (A print version is likely to appear soon on the Governor’s coronavirus page.)

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Fairfield CA, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas, Stay-at-home, Vacaville CA

COVID-19 – Time to re-open businesses in Solano? Officials say not yet…

Re-opening business in Solano depends on state easing restrictions

Fairfield Daily Republic, By Todd R. Hansen, April 23, 2020
Deanna Deckard is owner/broker at Windermere Greystone Real Estate. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic)

FAIRFIELD — The independent mayor of Las Vegas wants the casinos reopened, and more than a handful of states have already moved in that direction.

Sutter County supervisors have ordered their top administrator to send a letter to the governor calling for him to ease some of the business restrictions, and then coordinate with neighboring counties about how to do that.

Not all Solano County officials are convinced the time is right.

“What does that look like?” Supervisor Erin Hannigan asked, rhetorically. She called the concept “frightening.”

“We’re not there yet, and we are following the lead of our governor and, of course, Dr. (Bela) Matyas,” Hannigan said of the county’s public health officer. She said safety must come first.

“It could be a worse situation than it is now, so we have to be very careful about what that looks like,” the board chairwoman said.

Matyas said the county is actually ready to reopen businesses as soon as the state gives permission, and had the county had the same testing capacity it has now back when the outbreak started, the county could be looking at the number of cases on the decline.

“We have been planning for staged relaxation for a long time,” Matyas said.

There have been daily discussions about how that can be accomplished, he said.

Matyas said it would likely come in stages, with recreational opportunities being first in line, including parks and golf, followed by businesses that can more easily control social distancing. Then there would be those businesses where that distancing would be more difficult to achieve, and finally large gatherings.

“We have no plans to go slower than the state,” Matyas said.

But he cautioned such an action by the state is not likely to happen before mid-May, and even then there has to be a strategy that takes in to consideration the differences of smaller rural counties and larger, more urbanized counties.

Matyas said there are three direct points of control that must be in place: protecting hospitals from a surge of the disease; contact tracing; and protecting the most vulnerable populations, such as the fragile elderly.

He said Solano County is prepared to handle all three of those issues right now.

Vacaville Mayor Ron Rowlett

Vacaville Mayor Ron Rowlett said he does favor opening some businesses sooner than later, but agrees a strategy needs to be in place. He also said that he has had conversations with some supervisors, though he would not say whom, and the city has met with the county administration multiple times on the topic.

“We have businesses in town that are older than (50 years) that are going to lose everything,” Rowlett said.

He said the city has heard from a number of business owners who are eager to reopen their doors, and will follow whatever rules the county and city set out.

Suisun City Mayor Lori Wilson said the city is following the guidelines set out by the state and the county. She said officials have talked about what steps will need to be taken once those health orders are lifted or eased in any way. She said no specifics have been determined.

“We don’t want to be regressive in any way,” Wilson said. “We’ve done a good job flattening the curve . . . and we want to be safe.”

Fairfield Mayor Harry Price

Fairfield Mayor Harry Price said he is “ambivalent” on the topic.

He said he understands why the local business owners want to get back to business and make some money, and that is commendable. But he said the city needs to be cautious and fall on the side of health and safety.

“I don’t think we have enough evidence that we could do it on a large scale,” Price said.

He said he is buoyed by the fact residents seem to have accepted the social distancing platform, whereas just two or three weeks ago they seemed “unhappy and irritable.”

“I think that is a good sign. I think the people in Fairfield are taking it in stride, and that’s a good thing,” Price said.

That will help if and when businesses do start reopening, he said.

The Fairfield-Suisun Chamber of Commerce sent out a 14-question survey to its members that delves into a range of topics related to the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, Covid-19. The topics include the issue of restarting the economy.

“Do you believe we are ready to start re-opening nonessential businesses?” is one of the questions.

On a broader scale, the chamber asked, “With the information you have now, when do you feel it would be best to resume normal small-group social activities?”

The results of the survey have not been made available. Chamber executive Debi Tavey could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Deanna Deckard, owner broker of Windermere Greystoke Real Estate on Texas Street in Fairfield, said she believes the time is right to begin opening up certain kinds of businesses.

“In my opinion, for all of us to keep moving forward and for people to keep their heads above water, I think we have to ease some of those business restrictions,” Deckard said.

She understands not all businesses could be part of that, but she feels there are some that can control their clientele numbers and other Covid-19 socialization concerns.

Deckard said things are OK for real estate businesses now that the industry is considered an essential business. It took some lobbying to take if off the nonessential list, but it is an industry that has been using technology for a long time and physical contact with clients is no longer a necessity.

“Things are going OK in the real estate world; we’re marching right along,” the 17-year realty veteran said.

While the numbers for April are not in, yet, she noted that sales in March totaled 339, which is only slightly lower than the 365 that closed in March 2019. She said interest rates are driving the market.

“The interest rates are just too good,” Deckard said.

The bigger issue, she said, has been the lack of inventory, which has been an issue for several years. Listings for April are particularly low.

Deckard said most of the activity has been with first-time buyers and those buyers who are looking to move up in the market. The mix of Solano County residents or those coming into the county to take advantage of lower prices remains about the same as it has been.

“I’m optimistic for Solano County, for us,” Deckard said. “Our pricing is such that we are more affordable than other places in the Bay Area.”

She said house prices have fallen a bit, but it is still a good market for sellers and buyers.

Most people who have the novel coronavirus experience only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. Some people, especially older adults and those with underlying health problems, experience more severe illness such as pneumonia and at times, death.

Three people have died thus far in Solano County as a result of Covid-19. The vast majority of people recover. The World Health Organization reports people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.