In 2018, a “group” called GAO slithered out of the slime and began spewing climate denial propaganda. Its aim being to deflect against lawsuits attacking fossil fuel companies in the US.

“GAO, which is run as a for-profit company and foundation, does not disclose its donors nor does it provide much information about its origins. But on Saturday, a bankruptcy court in southern Ohio released a filing revealing that the organization received three donations totaling $300,000 from Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal-mining company in the United States”.

It turns out that filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection means you have to disclose payments to outside political entities.

I guess I should be happy that coal companies are going bankrupt left right and center (bonus #1), but the slime squeezed out by their demise is something else (bonus #2):

“Bankruptcy filings have provided a unique opportunity for the public to better understand the political agenda of powerful corporate interests, which typically shroud sensitive donations through nondisclosing entities. The sudden collapse earlier this year of Cloud Peak Energy, a Wyoming-based coal firm, revealed several donations to climate change denial groups. In 2015, The Intercept reported on another wave of coal bankruptcies, which revealed ties between coal firms to a subterranean network of groups dedicated to blocking environmental reform.”

What kind of abysmal human being do you have to be to take part in this shit? The lowest of the low. I’d rather clean sewers for a week than spend a minute within smelling distance of one of these terrible excuses for a human being.

One POS of note here is Chris Horner, an attorney who claims the earth is cooling.

Clearly he’s not currently in Australia.

“The bankruptcy of Alpha Natural Resources three years ago, for instance, showed secret payments to Chris Horner, a former lobbyist who had hounded climate scientists in an attempt to discredit their work. The disclosure was the first time Horner and his nonprofit, the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic, had been directly tied to the fossil fuel industry”.

So, what’s he up to these days? Swimming in a sea of dirty money in pair of Trump-themed budgie-smugglers?

No. Better than that:

“Horner is now on to new projects. Along with several other lawyers, he is a co-founder of GAO”.

Over and out.

[Coal mine photo credit: Dominik Vanyi/Unsplash]