How the Fossil Fuel Industry is Being Kept on Life Support

FEATURING ANTONIA JUHASZ – The Democratic National Committee ahead of its convention puzzlingly dropped its goal to end subsidies to the fossil fuel industry even as the party has claimed it acknowledges the seriousness of climate change. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has supported Representative Joe Kennedy in his bid to unseat Democratic Senator Ed Markey, the co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, in another indication that establishment Democrats seem to be paying only lip service to climate justice. Meanwhile the Republican National Committee has refused to even draft or vote on a party platform, preferring instead to throw its weight behind Trump’s so-called “America First” policies that include artificially propping up the fossil fuel industry.

Antonia Juhasz is an energy analyst, investigative journalist, and author specializing in oil politics. She is currently a Bertha Fellow in Investigative Journalism working with a global team of journalists on fossil fuels and the climate crisis. She has written for Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Harper’s Magazine, The Nation, Ms. Magazine, The New York Times, and Pacific Standard and is the author of three books, most recently, Black Tide: the Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill.