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Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

57K followers 1.8K following 1.9K posts

Investigative climate reporter. Ida Tarbell stan. Run Drilled.media, contrib lots of places. Writing a book on corporate disinfo for Bloomsbury. She/her/ella in 🇨🇷. Pod: https://push.fm/fl/drilled. YT:@DrilledMedia. Signal: adubs.78.

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Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Gross

November 7, 2025 at 11:08 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Woahhhh this makes it feel so real!

Cover of forthcoming book “Brought to You By: Inside Corporate America’s Total Information War”

October 17, 2025 at 8:30 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Whenever I read a Politico story, I keep in mind its parent company's 5 "essential" values, one of which is Israel's right to statehood and another the "principles of a free market economy."

www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/th...

Axel Springer's list of essential values

September 23, 2025 at 1:14 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

I saw this image yesterday & haven't stopped thinking about it. A healthy lung, the lung of a 14-year-old boy with chronic exposure to air pollution, and a smoker's lung. Report comes out tomorrow, bringing together peer-reviewed research on fossil fuels & health us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

lung of 14-year-old boy exposed to air pollution

September 15, 2025 at 3:15 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

okay @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social won the email subject line game today, this is 🤌 (good excuse to plug the very good @heatmap.news newsletter too!)

Email heading "Energy Secretary Chris Wrong"

September 9, 2025 at 11:15 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

I couldn't help myself (h/t @lucyvonsturmer.bsky.social!)

Jumbotron affair meme with text "Big Oil" on man and "Legacy Media" on woman.

July 18, 2025 at 4:52 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Vance as the tie-breaker, of course. The Job Cuts Act of 2025 has passed, what a total shit show

Copy of Law360 news on budget bill passing the Senate 50-50 with JD Vance providing the tie-breaker vote to pass it.

July 1, 2025 at 4:25 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

In many parts of the world they've all but abandoned pretending to be part of the solution, yet so much of the climate movement's messaging is still focused on greenwashing. I've been hearing folks talk for years about the need for a "rapid response" approach to industry talking points but...

July 1, 2025 at 4:19 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

I've been talking about this for years but the fossil fuel industry has five key narratives, they haven't changed much in decades, and they just shift between them/combine them depending on what is happening in the world. Made a quick and dirty flow chart to illustrate it:

Flow chart of the "fossil fuel spin cycle" showing the 5 narratives the industry shifts between: 1. We keep you safe, 2. We make your life work, 3. Economy vs. Environment, 4. We're part of the solution, 5. We're a great neighbor

July 1, 2025 at 4:19 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

There are many ways the anti-abortion right has shown itself to be anti-women and children over the years, but axing after-school programs is pretty high on the list

Screenshot of press release from the Afterschool Alliance that reads “A Stunning Betrayal that Will Cause Lasting Harm to Students, Families, Our Education System, Our Workforce, and Our Economy’
Statement of Jodi Grant, Executive Director, Afterschool Alliance, on the Trump Administration Withholding FY25 Afterschool and Summer Learning Program Funds
 
“Afterschool and summer learning programs are an American success story. The Trump Administration’s decision to withhold FY25 afterschool funding is a stunning betrayal. States have always received these funds on July 1. Congress appropriated and all 50 states and D.C. have already committed these funds to individual afterschool and summer learning programs, most of which are expecting their grants now.”

July 1, 2025 at 2:15 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

We might have had a little too much fun coming up with the cover art for the next @drilledmedia.bsky.social season (coming right after this one, at the end of July!)

Cover art for podcast miniseries Carbon Bros, featuring every terrible manosohere meme

June 24, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Oh hello Apple not just promoting @drilledmedia.bsky.social but with an accurate description of this case? We love to see it!

Oil companies have fought hard and spent a lot of money to remove the tribe and its water from the story of Standing Rock. We all know better. push.fm/fl/drilled

Drilled podcast featured in Apple Podcasts app with the tag line "An Indigenous nation and the legal fight to protect their water."

June 23, 2025 at 8:37 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

I'm not sure what you mean, this is what it looks like to me:

June 11, 2025 at 9:06 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Meet your new AI Companion

Clippy, Microsoft Word's longtime "helper."

May 23, 2025 at 2:56 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

One of the many, many impacts of the current efforts to dismantle anything helpful the government does for citizens is that the FOIA system has ground to a halt. Been getting auto responses like this from a LOT of FOIA officers at gov agencies:

auto-response from Dept of Energy FOIA officer that reads: "I have accepted the Deferred Resignation Program and I am on administrative leave. For FOIA-related matters, please contact Todd.Burns, Assistant General
Counsel for Finance and Information Law, at Todd.Burns@hq.doe.gov."

May 14, 2025 at 5:25 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

The actual meat of this story is...fine, but it's absolutely baffling to me that anyone thinks lukewarmism is a *new* anti-climate playbook?!

May 7, 2025 at 11:02 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Is it me or does this headline sound like it’s describing a teen complaining about their strict mom and not a judge very reasonably trying to require a president to uphold the Constitution as he’s legally bound to?

NYT cover story on man wrongfully sent to prison in El Salvador with a photo of protestors and the headline “Judge Scolds Government for Doing ‘Nothing’ to Return Deported Man"

April 15, 2025 at 10:29 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Imagine not waking up at 5am in a panic every day?!

April 3, 2025 at 12:21 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

The Greenland obsession is Network State shit, that’s it, it’s not a big mystery, been out in the open for ages. From www.vcinfodocs.com/status-of-th...:

The Network State centers on attaining sovereignty above all: their own government; escape from regulation, taxation and accountability; and unregulated medical experimentation, crypto and AI development. It enables predation of countries in the global south and across the world, a new age of colonization, and the growth of unchecked power and wealth. Many of the developments described here are related to the same funding sources, in particular, Pronomos Capital, a firm funded by Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel and Balaji Srinivasan, chief evangelist for the Network State. Pronomos is funding a number of Network State sites across the globe. Sam Altman is an investor in one major site, Praxis. Praxis has previously attempted to buy Greenland.

March 28, 2025 at 7:04 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

This, pulled from the ICNL protest tracker (linked below) is a truly terrifying crackdown on free speech. Reminder that many/most of these anti-protest laws were explicitly passed as a reaction to Standing Rock 🧵

Update on anti-protest laws from ICNL: Moving:

New Jersey bill creating an overbroad “incitement to public brawl” offense: A 4652 passed both chambers and will go to the governor, despite advocacy by the ACLU-NJ and others.
North Dakota bill making it a serious misdemeanor to wear a mask in a group: HB 1226, which passed the House last month, is moving through the Senate. ND’s session is expected to end May 2.
Arizona bill creating criminal liability for student protesters who establish or occupy a protest encampment: HB 2880, which passed the House on March 3, is moving through the Senate. AZ’s session is expected to end April 26.
Tennessee bill making it a felony to obstruct a street, sidewalk, or other public passageway: HB 729 / SB 672 is moving through committees in both chambers. TN’s session is expected to end April 25.
West Virginia bill making it a serious misdemeanor (and felony after the first offense) to obstruct a street, sidewalk, or other public passageway: HB 3135 is moving through House committees. WV’s session is expected to end April 12.

Additional bills of note:

U.S. S 982 – Penalties for higher ed based on protest policies (introduced 3/12/25)

Would make federal accreditation of colleges and universities—and thus their access to federal funds—contingent on the institution’s policies on responding to protests. Under the “No Tax Dollars for College Encampments Act of 2024,” universities would have to regularly disclose how they respond to campus “incidents of civil disturbance,” defined to include “a demonstration, riot, or strike,” and their accreditation would be linked to such policies and practices. The sponsor cited pro-Palestine campus protests as motivation for the bill; he introduced the same bill in 2024.

U.S. HR 2065 – Penalties for protesters who wear a mask (introduced 3/11/25)

Would make it a federal crime, subject to a lengthy prison sentence, to wear a mask or other disguise while protesting …

March 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Just gonna stick this here, no reason 🙃

Definition of moral relativism: “Moral relativism is the philosophical idea that moral judgments are relative to a specific standpoint, such as a culture or historical period, and that no standpoint is superior to another. It suggests that there is no universal set of moral principles, and that morals are shaped by social customs and beliefs. Moral relativists argue that good and bad are relative concepts, and that whether something is right or wrong can change depending on opinion, social context, or culture.”

March 22, 2025 at 5:41 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Comment from Smith's attorney (h/t @revkin.bsky.social)

Comment from Smith's attorney: My client broke the law, pled guilty and accepted full responsibility for damaging to energy facilities, one in ND and one in SD. He did so because he was passionate about the existential threat of climate change and wanted to bring attention to the issue. He chose unmanned stations, in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night to ensure no human would be harmed. He did those things, and for that, he deserved an appropriate consequence.

BUT, there is no way to view the outcome, a 25 year prison sentence, as anything other than a travesty of justice, because the judge ignored the sentencing guidelines, comparative caselaw, his motivation to raise awareness about the existential threat of climate change, and his other cognitive and physical health issues. That means this fifty-year-old Autistic man will likely die in prison.

March 12, 2025 at 3:29 PM

Amy Westervelt

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

Update: 8 people from communities directly impacted by oil and gas were arrested for peacefully protesting outside CERA Week. They were blocking a road. (cop presence looks intense for a small peaceful protest)