Peabody

Climate Change Denial Business Peabody

Peabody, formerly Peabody Energy, is the largest private sector coal company in the United States and is located in St. Louis, Missouri. They mine, sell, and distribute coal used for electricity generation and steel production. They were founded in 1883, and grown to have an estimated 5.2 billion tons of coal reserves in 2017. Peabody filed for bankruptcy in 2016, but reemerged by 2017 and rebranded from Peabody Energy to Peabody.

Climate change:

Peabody is notorious for climate denial, misleading investors on climate change risks, and lobbying against government regulations.

Peabody has funded “at least two dozen groups that cast doubt on man made climate change and oppose environmental regulations.” Some of these groups include the American Legislative Exchange Council, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, and National Black Chamber of Commerce. Their climate denial lobbying dates back to Fred Palmer, Peabody’s former Senior Vice President of Governmental Relations, in the 1990s when he “promoted the notion that climate change was a net positive, with benefits for plants and public health.” Palmer has also opposed EPA rules and “limits on carbon pollution to deal with what he dismissed as “climate theory.” In 2010, Peabody spent over $4.5 million on lobbying, including half a million dollars to Larry Tribe to argue against the Clean Power Plan Act.

In a letter to the US government Peabody described C02 as, “a benign gas that is essential for all life.” In 2015 they sent another letter stating “While the benefits of carbon dioxide are proven, the alleged risks of climate change are contrary to observed data, are based on admitted speculation, and lack adequate scientific basis.” Vic Svec, Senior VP for Global Investors, has stated “our view is that the worst human and environmental crisis is not climate change.”

In 2009, a Peabody memo detailing climate change, mercury pollution, and plant development lobbying points leaked:

“In the climate change arena, Community Economic and Ecological Development (CEED) focuses on three areas: opposing government-mandated controls of greenhouse gases (GHG), opposing ‘regulation by litigation’, and supporting sequestration and technology as the proper vehicles for addressing any reasonable concerns about greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.”

“Our belief is that, on climate change like other issues, you must be for something rather than against everything. The combination of carbon sequestration and technology is what we preach and we are looking for more members in the choir.”

The memo continues:

“More than a year ago, New York Governor Pataki proposed an eleven-state regional CO2 cap and trade program. Community Economic and Ecological Development (CEED) has been engaged in this effort from its beginning. Persuading Pennsylvania and Maryland (as major coal-consuming states) to stay on the sidelines, rather than signing onto this initiative, has been one element of our strategy. The other element is to pose voluntary sequestration and technology as the correct policy, rather than mandatory controls.”

“About a dozen states sued the EPA last year alleging that the agency must regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act. CEED was the lead organization for outreach to the vast majority of state attorneys general who intervened on the Bush Administration’s side in new litigation designed to force CO2 regulation under the Clean Air Act.”

Alaska:

In 2008, Peabody was sued by a native Alaskan village over erosion damage and greenhouse gas emissions. The village was forced to relocate because of the environmental damage.