A podcast on energy and environmental issues in America and around the world. Presented by the USC Schwarzenegger Institute and Canary Media. Political Climate goes beyond echo chambers to bring you civil conversations, fierce debates and insider perspectives on the policy landscape. Join hosts Julia Pyper, Brandon Hurlbut and Shane Skelton as we explore how energy and climate decisions get made and the political interests powering them.
In the face of a mounting climate crisis, financial institutions are reevaluating their relationships with coal, gas and oil. But while the divestment movement is picking up speed, it isn’t on a one way street.
There is still lots of money flowing into fossil fuels through various public and private channels. At the same time, fossil fuel interests are spending heavily to influence policy that protects their assets and future growth opportunities.
In this episode, we speak to Leah Stokes, assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara about her research on how fossil fuel companies and electric utilities are slowing the shift away from polluting resources.
This is the fourth episode in the Political Climate miniseries called DITCHED: fossil fuels, money flows and the greening of finance. Listen and subscribe to Political Climate wherever you get podcasts!
Recommended reading:
- Guardian: How the oil industry has spent billions to control the climate change conversation
- Sierra: Bailout: Billions of Dollars of Federal COVID-19 Relief Money Flow to the Oil Industry
- E&E: Big Oil, meet Big Green
- Bloomberg: Utilities Are Slowing Down the Clean Energy Transition
- S&P: Ohio bribery scandal increases scrutiny of how utilities use 'dark money' groups
- Energy and Policy Institute: Paying for Utility Politics
- Short Circuiting Policy
Catch all DITCHED episodes in addition to our regular Thursday shows! Listen and subscribe to Political Climate on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play or wherever you get podcasts!
This episode is brought to you with support from Lyft. Lyft is leading the transition to zero emissions vehicles with a commitment to achieve 100% electric vehicles on the Lyft platform by 2030. Learn more at lyftimpact.com/electric.
