this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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In Louisiana, natural gas—a planet-heating fossil fuel—is now, by law, considered “green energy” that can compete with solar and wind projects for clean energy funding. The law, signed by Republican Governor Jeff Landry last month, comes on the heels of similar bills passed in Ohio, Tennessee, and Indiana. What the bills have in common—besides an “updated definition” of a fossil fuel as a clean energy source—is language seemingly plucked straight from a right-wing think tank backed by oil and gas billionaire and activist Charles Koch.

Louisiana’s law was based on a template created by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative organization that brings legislators and corporate lobbyists together to draft bills “dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.” The law maintains that Louisiana, in order to minimize its reliance on “foreign adversary nations” for energy, must ensure that natural gas and nuclear power are eligible for “all state programs that fund ‘green energy’ or ‘clean energy’ initiatives.”

Louisiana state Rep. Jacob Landry first introduced a near-identical bill to the model posted on ALEC’s website and to the other bills that have passed in Ohio, Tennessee, and Indiana. (The Washington Post reported in 2023 that ALEC was involved in Ohio’s bill; ALEC denies involvement.) Landry, who represents a small district in the southern part of the state, is the recipient of significant fossil fuel-industry funding—and he co-owns two oil and gas consulting firms himself. During his campaign for the state Legislature, Landry received donations from at least 15 fossil-fuel-affiliated companies and PACs, including ExxonMobil (which has also funded ALEC) and Phillips 66. Those donations alone totaled over $20,000.

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[–] omgboom@lemmy.dbzer0.com 137 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Those donations alone totaled over $20,000.

It always amazes me how cheaply these traitors sell us out.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 49 points 10 months ago

That's only the public money. Who knows how much dark money they got for it.

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Reminds me of when Sam Bankman Freid (FTX Crypto guy) said he was surprised it only cost him lile $50k to buy off a politician or something. And the Oceangate CEO apparently said that if someone complains about the safety of his sub he'll just "buy a senator".

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 10 months ago

I can't remember where I was reading this but being cheap to purchase is by design.

If politicians were expensive to buy, the public outcry would be significantly higher and would also incur more scrutiny. So there is this balance of bribing a politician vs their voters being upset that their politician taking too much money. Oddly there doesn't seem to be a floor of "our politician can be bought too cheaply."

The other side of this is that until Citizens United is overturned, there is no limit to how much a company can spend on special interest groups. This is where politicians fear the most. If they don't go along with whatever issue, then they have to raise more money to run for re-election, which puts more pressure on them to accept the bribe in the first place.

TL;DR: money in politics is killing our democracy

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[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 57 points 10 months ago

And remember, billionaires didn’t get to be billionaires by spending money that they didn’t think would result in more money coming back to them.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago (6 children)

"Fossil fuels come from the Earth, so they're green"

Every fucking day since 2016 it get's harder and harder to come up with any remotely believable satire. There's just no way of joking about reality, because that would require actually subverting expectations or exceeding norms to absurd levels, and that's actually happening constantly in real life, making it not-fun

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Don't worry, the Supreme Court just gave the okay for slashing 1400 education department jobs and reducing funding.

In no time at all, our population will be so dumb that it won't matter what words we use to describe anything!

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

I've been reading Bonhoeffer recently. His work is very much relevant right now, and quite depressing.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (8 children)

by their logic, cyanide is also green and harmless since it comes from plants and is renewable.

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[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

All this for donations equivalent to the price of a used Toyota Camry? What a cheap suit Landry is.

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Is it a bad thing that I read this as “cheap slut”?

[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 30 points 10 months ago (9 children)

I had to deal with this shit in my environmental studies class in uni. Apparently the forestry industry has been promoting their own brand of propaganda that says burning wood, the most greenhouse-gas-producing fuel on the planet, is environmentally friendly because it is "renewable".

Great, we'll all be dead from global warming but at least in theory the trees that burned down from the wildfires could have reabsorbed that carbon over a couple centuries.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah, we do it in the UK too. "Biomass" is just impatient coal.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Burning wood is green iff the wood was harvested from trees planted for this purpose and all equipment used in the process from planting to harvesting to processing is entirely running on renewable energy.

Seems like it'd be easier to just use solar power and heat pumps for heating

[–] ianonavy@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I feel like the bigger issue is all the CO2 emitted from burning literal carbon. Using fossil fuels is just burning trees with extra steps (millennia of burial and compression).

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The difference is that the carbon in the wood is in the short carbon cycle while the fossil fuels were sequestered. Carbon wise it doesn't matter if the tree burns or rots (ok rotting does keep some of it in life and soil, but burning leaves some as char).

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[–] mystik@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago (2 children)

So, if the fed government can sue CA, claiming that states cannot impose additional requirements on egg production because of a federal-level definition + the supremacy clause, how can these states reclassify gas as 'green energy', since the grids are inter-state electrically connected, and the Fed has to set the standard for inter-state commerce?

Or perhaps I'm just reaching to far expecting some kind of consistent application of the law. shrugs

[–] TotallynotJessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 10 months ago

There is no law, only Trump's will and wealthy interests

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

consistent application of the law

In the Un-United States of Trashcanistan? Lol.

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

All they know how to do is lie and be violent

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

You just described fascists.

[–] pticrix@lemmy.ca 19 points 10 months ago
[–] 0tan0d@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Corruption this raw unfiltered and cheap makes you wonder how much time needs to get wasted until we outlaw buying politicians again.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago (3 children)

There is a whole group of people that really believe that the concept 'perception is reality' is a permission to make up the truth. In other words they believe if they tell a lie enough that it will become reality.

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[–] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Alright, I gotta hand it to them; this is by far one of, if not THE DUMBEST THING I've ever fucking read. It takes SKILL, DEDICATION, AND HARD WORK to be THIS fucking stupid. I'm genuinely impressed at how hard they've worked to divorce themselves from reality, it's truly a marvel of cognitive restructuring. I'd say there's no way they can top this, but we all know that they'll find one in the next month, and it'll make me question my sanity once again. Congratulations.

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

But they don't like green energy. Why would they ruin as perfectly good fossil fuel that way?

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

And then the same people will turn around and look you dead in the eye and say "the left can't even define what a woman is"

[–] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Are they at least adding green colouring..?

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Only on St Patrick's Day.

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] vegeta@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

It’s got what plants crave

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

This is what you get when you give conservatives power.

Hopefully America remembers that going forward, but probably not.

[–] SirMaple__@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

Ah yes. Stupidity knows no bounds.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

I remember when ohio wasn't like that. I miss the purple state I grew up in

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