Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA).
The focus of the report centered on the presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The report discloses the use of cyber tools and media campaigns to influence public opinion and undermine public faith in the U.S.
We assess with high confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election the consistent goals of which were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process denigrate Secretary Clinton and harm her electability and potential presidency" the report stated.
Even though the report centered on the election it also stated that the Russian government has been trying to undermine the oil and gas industry too. The report stated the Russian propaganda highlighted U.S. environmental issues involved in the debate on hydraulic fracturing and infrastructure development such as pipelines.This is likely reflective of the Russian Governments concern about the impact of fracking and U.S. natural gas production on the global energy market and the potential challenges to Gazproms profitability" the report stated. Gazprom is an oil and gas company owned by the Russian government and it is a monopoly.
Russia is a major exporter of crude oil and natural gas. It relies heavily on revenues from oil and gas exports. Increased production in the U.S. has increased competition for oil and gas internationally. It has affected the price of both commodities.
If Russia could create a movement against hydraulic fracturing it might have a negative impact on U.S. production which would reduce some competition and possible increase price.
Russias government-funded international media outlet RT the Kremlins principal international propaganda outlet has attacked the environmental integrity of hydraulic fracturing in a report that interviewed environmental activists in the U.S. and abroad in an effort to build public opposition and government bans on hydraulic fracturing.
Newsweek published on Jan. 29 a story by Drew Johnson senior fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance which stated in 2014 intelligence information led then-NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen to conclude that Moscow conspired with environmental groups to block fracking activities in Romania Lithuania and Bulgaria.
Russia as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organizations -- environmental organizations working against shale gas -- to maintain dependence on imported Russian gas said Rasmussen.
Johnson reported that a U.S. Senate report found the Sea Change Foundation funneled more than $43 million to environmental causes in 2011. He said the Foundation is heavily funded by a Bermuda-based shell corporation with direct ties to Putin and Russian oil interests.
The revelation that Russia wants to limit oil and gas production and exports from the U.S. is not new. There have been numerous reports in recent years linking the Kremlin to propaganda campaigns and the funding of environmental groups attempting to restrict energy development in the U.S.
However the energy renaissance continues even after years of low commodity prices massive layoffs and attacks from environmental groups.
The battles continue. The legislative director of the Sierra Club one of the many environmental groups dedicated to limiting oil and gas production said: Were preparing for the fight of our lives."
Yes many people see this battle as a fight for their lives but Russia does not have Americas best interest at heart.
Global Warming Debate Heats Up
The global warming debate got even hotter recently when Dr. John Bates an award-winning retired National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist questioned the validity and preservation of data collected by the NOAA causing Congressman Lamar Smith (right R-TX) Chairman of the U.S. House Science Space & Technology Committee to remark during a Feb. 6 hearing that EPA has pursued a political agendanot a scientific one."
Chairman Smith added that EPA had relied on questionable science" leading to expensive and ineffective regulations."
- Science Space & Technology members respond: Former NOAA Scientist Confirms Colleagues Manipulated Climate Records
pause" in global warming. Consequently the K15 study earned the moniker Pausebuster Paper".
The pause" UN scientists observed in global warming had puzzled climate scientists for years because as temperatures remained steady emissions continued to rise leading some to question exactly how much influence manmade emissions have on Earths climate.
Bates said Karl failed to disclose critical information" to NOAA and that
The land temperature dataset used in the K15 study had never been processed through the station adjustment software before which led me to believe something was amiss."
Bates whose visionary work in the acquisition production and preservation of climate data records" earned him a U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal was
dumbstruck that Tom Karl the NCEI Director in charge of NOAAs climate data archive would not follow the policy of his own agency nor the guidelines in Science magazine for dataset archival and documentation."
Bates also revealed that Karl worked the co-authors most subtly but sometimes not pushing choices to emphasize warming" and that Gradually in the months after K15 came out the evidence kept mounting that Tom Karl constantly had his thumb on the scale … in an effort to discredit the notion of the global warming hiatus and rushed to time the publication of the paper to influence … deliberations
on climate policy."
K15 was published just before the release of EPAs Clean Power Plan and before the adoption of the Paris climate agreement.
As questions about the datas validity arose computer software problems" began:
All software has errors and it is not surprising there were some but the magnitude of the problem was significant and a rigorous process of software improvement like the one proposed was needed" Bates wrote.
However this effort was just beginning when the K15 paper was submitted and so K15 must have used data with some experimental processing that had known flaws."
I later learned that the computer used to process the software had suffered a complete failure leading to a tongue-in-cheek joke by some who had worked on it that the failure was deliberate to ensure the result could never be replicated" Bates wrote.
Batess disclosures give yet another example of questionable actions by people at the center of the global warming debate. In 2009 thousands of leaked emails were released that indicated scientists were
manipulating data to conceal inaccuracies in an effort to support their global warming theory a scandal that later became known as Climategate."
Chairman Smith issued subpoenas demanding data relevant to the Pausebuster Paper" including internal emails but NOAA refused to comply.
Dr. Bates said he decided to speak out after reading comments from scientists who said they feared the Trump administration would fail to maintain and preserve NOAAs climate records.
I read with great irony recently that scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data fearing it might vanish under Trump" Bates wrote stating The most serious example of a climate scientist not archiving or documenting a critical climate dataset was the K15 study."
