35 Comments
Jan 25Liked by Emily Atkin, Arielle Samuelson

Love seeing the great reporting by Heated getting a wider view with the Guardian! After the LATimes (and all the other) layoffs, there's even more need for climate storytelling/reporting. Keep kicking asses. (And of course PERC is doing this, why change if you can keep the current quarterly earning statement good for investors...ugh)

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Jan 25Liked by Emily Atkin, Arielle Samuelson

This article has really punched my "Pissed off at Greenwashing" button!

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Jan 25Liked by Emily Atkin, Arielle Samuelson

Wow - this is fantastic to have partnered with The Guardian! So exciting to see what you've already achieved with Heated so early in 2024!

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Jan 25Liked by Emily Atkin

Honestly really fucking cool you got this partnership with the Guardian, and thank you for covering propane as well. I know in the agriculture industry propane is huge, so tackling that is important.

Another commenter mentioned King of the Hill, and it would have been great if a mention or joke was made, but it is interesting to think about how much that show influenced popular perception of propane as "clean". Probably just speculation though.

Again thank you for this coverage and this is a reason why HEATED is so awesome. Whether it is propane or essential oils, it is awesome to have a publication discuss and investigate every aspect of our fossil fuel economy and show the ways in which producers of those products try to lie and basically cheat their way out of a clean energy future.

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Good article and congratulations on your upgraded spotlight with The Guardian. I read a lot of articles from around the world posted by them so this extra exposure is defiintely a huge boost for you two. Meanwhile, in the war over fossil fuels, it is becoming a war of attrition. Whomever has the deepest pockets controls the narrative. Keep up the good fight and I will continue to support your ever more important work here.

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Jan 25Liked by Arielle Samuelson, Emily Atkin

So glad two of my favorite outlets have hooked up! Congrats!

I can't get to the PERC internal video you referenced: https://substack.com/redirect/d60188f2-33da-41c6-bf5b-2a9285aed091?j=eyJ1IjoiM2M5eDIifQ.mp4jNKIWebz4N4pVjcB1C7FgMSw9oXvw3hVZcSdkxkI -- it appears to be password protected.

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author

Thanks, it should be fixed now

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Wow. The phrase that popped into my head watching this webinar on the propane rebrand is "the banality of evil". How do these women live with themselves? What kind of horrible deal did they feel they needed to cut to sell out their souls (and their kids' futures)? OTOH, it's kinda nice to see that the bad guys have to endure boring webinars like the rest of us. :)

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Jan 25Liked by Arielle Samuelson

Here in Canada, the "natural" (oh so benign, eh?) gas industry is actually harassing city/town councils that are voting to ban natural gas for home heating and appliances in new builds.

Gotta love that ad you posted: "Energy that adds no new carbon." It sure plays on people's scientific and historical — and climate change — illiteracy! But I would think the oil and coal folks would be fuming, since their forms of energy "add no new carbon" either. At least, not to the Earth. To the atmosphere, oh yeah. About 35 billion tonnes per year.

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Jan 25·edited Jan 25Liked by Emily Atkin, Arielle Samuelson

Thanks for turning up the heat on the heaters, Emily and Arielle! 👏 (BTW, the link to the internal video on Google Drive is asking for access.)🤷‍♂️

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author

It should be fixed!

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Jan 25Liked by Arielle Samuelson

Congratulations on the collaboration!! I also wanted to ask you both about Heated, and its future. A lot of reputable pages/journalists are leaving Substack, because of the endorsement of Nazis, and everything about them (white supremacy, etc.) Will you be taking Heated elsewhere? A lot of people are going to other platforms, I believe one is called Beehive (?). Will you keep us posted on your plans?

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author

We will definitely keep you posted. It's something we're still trying to figure out internally. But needless to say, we're not pleased.

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Thank you very much!

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author

We're definitely talking about this; thank you for raising it.

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Jan 25Liked by Arielle Samuelson

Great stuff. Only thing missing is a King of the Hill reference and/or GIF in the HEATED tradition of seasoning the serious and heavy climate news with a touch of humor.

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author

For some reason I didn't even think of Hank Hill while editing this newsletter. Huge oversight!

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Ha! The King of the Hill reboot definitely should have an episode about moving from propane to induction. Your subscribers are natural base for messages urging for that to happen.

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Turning crops, especially food crops into fuel for insatiable machines including heating & cooking is obscene! Turning food into fuel also results in topsoil depletion and erosion. The energy equation for ethanol from corn tends to ignore some losses, but it is driven by tax subsidies and they by greed.

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Congrats on the co-publication! Wonder if it would make sense for the series to be renamed from "Big Oil Uncovered" to "Big Fossil Uncovered". It's a broader term that would cover non-petroleum fossil fuels like coal, methane, and propane, but also has a bit of double-meaning in that it sounds like an archaeology column.

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Great article! As a chemistry professor, I wanted to clarify a small mistake I noticed. It was stated that "Most renewable propane emits some carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, though in smaller amounts than propane made from oil or gas", but the truth is that all propane emits the same amount of carbon dioxide when burned, whether renewable or not! This was written by your team, so I am wondering if PERC is claiming this too? If so, that's another deception. Thanks for reading!

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author

We've updated to clarify that all renewable propane emits CO2, just in case anyone thought it was zero carbon! PERC's marketing certainly encourages that misconception.

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That is good, thank you! Yes all propane emits the same amount of CO2 when burned, but maybe renewable propane's "intensity" is lower. I am skeptical, however.

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author

We'll look into this, thank you!

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Sounds good, thanks for responding Emily! 🤩

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Thank you for this—can you tell me more? That info is from the California Air Resource Board, which found that renewable propane has a median carbon intensity that's about one-third of the CI of fossil propane. (please see here: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/lcfs-pathway-certified-carbon-intensities)

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The difference might be "emissions" vs. "Intensity". My understanding is that intensity is lower because the equal emissions are offset by the fact that the source was a carbon-sucking plant and not a fossilized dinosaur.

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Yes you're right, saying renewable propane "emits" less CO2 is incorrect since every propane molecule has 3 carbons thus produces 3 CO2 molecules. But "intensity" implies the whole life cycle. And I assume your dinosaur comment is facetious as fossil fuels come from carboniferous plant matter! 😄

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Thanks for that link. I actually don't see renewable propane on their chart though!

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Yes you're right, saying renewable propane "emits" less CO2 is incorrect since every propane molecule has 3 carbons thus produces 3 CO2 molecules. But "intensity" implies the whole life cycle.

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Ok I see they mean life cycle emissions not just when burned. Curious where renewable propane comes in on the analysis though!

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Great article! Maybe if we had a more educated populace and fewer greedy politicians, we could be on a better path. I am a retired math/science teacher and I still continue to be amazed at the lack of knowledge when it comes to climate change. We need a well educated populace to get results in this fight! Glad you guys are contributing to that....I know I always learn something new when I read Heated! The Guardian alliance is great news! Keep it up!

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"Clean" coal. "Clean" propane. There's no depth to this industry's depravity.

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There are now a growing number of articles and videos like this that show how futile NetZero and our approach to climate change is in the west, while the rest get stronger by avoiding the blunder.

THE BIG EV LIE. Why They Won't Save the Planet & All About Dirty Electricity | TheCarGuys.tv (youtube.com)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sytWLB4-W-M

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