Julia Kane

@juliakane.bsky.social

920 Followers 941 Following

Researcher @fieldnotes.co, an oil & gas watchdog. U.S. Coast Guard vet.

Screenshot reading: “Hamm has said that he was unbothered by the price spikes and expressed indifference toward Americans who paid more at the pump. ‘I really don’t feel bad,’ he said in May. ‘These folks are driving down the road with the $80,000 F-150 and we’re at about $4 gas.’ Hamm, whose estimated net worth is $20bn, added: ‘It’s all relative.’
Screenshot of a quote from O.H. Skinner, Alliance for Consumers' executive director, reading: "I'm not an expert on these cases, but you're starting to see them. And I think the first one was just filed as a civil case in Oregon based on the heat dome—I still don't know what a heat dome is, but it is apparently a bad thing—where the estate of a person who died sued energy companies claiming that they had caused a climate homicide because the effects of climate change had made the environment in this person's life so unlivable that their death was literally caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Now, we can all sit here and say, 'Oh, the train of causation,' but I think one thing that Justin [Anderson — ExxonMobil's Assistant General Counsel for Litigation] can probably explain in his discussion is, if that's a theory that gets legs, that's just thousands, a million cases over a long enough arc, right? And they don't need— they just need enough of them to slip past a motion to dismiss and start to be like, 'Well, somebody died at 52 instead of 82.' Anybody who's in here and has ever done an insurance litigation case, like, those numbers are gonna get big and they're gonna get big fast."
Text: Elsinore Valley appears to be pushing back. That same week, the water district and the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank cofounded by Rollins herself in 2021, began to file a torrent of their own public records requests to organizations that were involved in dam removal talks. While some of these were governmental agencies that are legally required to respond to such requests, others were private sector actors that are typically not subject to the law, like the conservation nonprofit CalTrout. The request to CalTrout, a copy of which was shared with Grist, sought all electronic communications concerning the Potter Valley Project; all records, internal documents, and funding applications; and all communications shared with a variety of related entities and agencies. “We are not a public agency. So we were really confused we got it,” said Charlie Schneider, a project lead at the nonprofit. “What are they even after is hard to understand, right?”
A brown newt with a golden belly and green eyes clambers across a rocky trail
Screenshot of text: BURGUM’S BILLIONAIRE BUDDY: Oil giant Continental Resources, led by billionaire business magnate Harold Hamm, played a key role in the Interior Department’s decision to sign off on new wells in Wyoming despite a court injunction, according to a new report from Substack Public Domain’s Jimmy Tobias and watchdog group Fieldnotes’ Julia Kane. — Hamm reportedly met privately with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in April 2025 at an Oklahoma City hotel on the same day Burgum announced new plans to open more federal lands to oil, gas and mineral extraction. And two months later, a Continental staffer contacted a top political appointee at Interior with a “roadmap” for getting around a court injunction that restricted Bureau of Land Management oil and gas permitting in Converse County, Wyoming, according to emails obtained by Public Domain and Fieldnotes. — Burgum and Hamm’s friendship has drawn scrutiny for years. During the 2024 election cycle, Continental donated $250,000 to support Burgum’s presidential campaign, Federal Election Commission records show. Ever since Trump returned to the White House, BLM has approved more than 500 new wells in Converse County, Jimmy and Julia write. Continental did not respond to their requests for comment, and an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement that “Secretary Burgum has complied with all federal ethics requirements and remains committed to protecting America’s ability to responsibly use and care for our federal lands for the profit and benefit of future generations.”
Text: "It’s also not clear if the results from the industry’s pilot programs can be recreated at scale, said Ted Auch, a researcher for the Fieldnotes watchdog group. "The salt in produced water wreaks havoc on treatment equipment. And even if big companies are able to operate safely on a large scale, the oil industry tends to attract small operators who look to compete by cutting costs. So instead of overseeing a handful of big operations, state regulators would have to keep an eye on dozens of small treatment plants. "'Then all of a sudden the whole thing starts to break down, because now, instead of one or two large discharge permits … we have this very diffuse network of these things all over the place. And good luck with that,' Auch said."
A cardboard sign reading “FUCK ICE” with people marching and a colorful mural in the background
Aaron Szabo, head of EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, wrote an op-ed titled "EPA will keep its foot on the gas in 2026, ending burdensome regulation" for The Hill on Dec. 19, 2025
A screenshot of an email exchange where Roy Spencer, an author of DOE's climate denial report, asks about telling the CO2 Coalition about the project. Seth Cohen, then DOE special counsel, responds: "I cannot stress enough the important of our silence and restraint pending completion of this process."
Text (translated from French): "Powerful but discreet, the head of Continental Resources doesn't need to be in the spotlight to advance his agenda. During Trump's first term, he benefited from numerous measures taken by the administration, such as the reduction of regulations concerning methane emissions and the protection of certain endangered species. 'He's an extremely shrewd businessman,' adds Julia Kane. 'Everything he does is aimed at a direct financial benefit for his company, and for himself.'"
Text: John B. McCuskey — West Virginia Attorney General: We have look at the real world and understand why it's so important for us to beat New York in these climate fund laws. Because it isn't just New York. It's 75 billion in New York. The Vermont climate Superfund law is unlimited. The California legislature has one right now, the Illinois legislature has on right now, the Pennsylvania legislature has one right right now, the Virginia legislature, I promise you after Tuesday will have one right now, right? And so you take $75 billion and multiply it by 13, 15 then it becomes an industry destroying problem. That is unsustainable. If they have to pay $7 trillion over the next 15 years, there will be no more oil industries. There will be no more coal industries. There will no more natural gas industries. So that is why this fight right now is so massively important, because if we lose one, we lose them all. That's the way that I look at this.
Someone wrote “Fund the EPA” on a USPS Priority Mail sticker and stuck it on a parking meter.
A flyer with an image of the Ohio statehouse reads: “‘The New Wild West”: Inside the Oil & Gas industry’s Push for Carbon Capture & Storage in Ohio. Thursday, Nov. 6, 6 PM ET. Register: bit.ly/new-wild-west.” The logos for Buckeye Environmental Network, Ohio River Valley Institute, and Fieldnotes are along the bottom.
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Title: From Denial to Dominance: Big Oil's Capture of U.S. Energy Policy Description: For more than half a century, the oil and gas industry has spread misleading information about climate change. In the Trump era, executives have unprecedented access to a U.S. Administration. Join expert researchers and advocates to unpack these patterns of obstruction and discuss the litigation and investigations shedding light on them. Date/Time: 12-1pm EST, Weds, Sept. 24, 2025 Location: Columbia University, International Affairs Building, 420 W 118th St. Speakers: Ben Franta (Associate Professor, Oxford Sustainability Law Programme Founder, Climate Litigation Lab); Kelly Mitchell (Executive Director, Fieldnotes); Aria Kovalovich (Former Senior Investigator, Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee); Iyla Shornstein (Political Director, Center for Climate Integrity)
Text reading: "'When it comes to actual policies where oil companies can be held accountable for their methane emissions, we see positions that differ from what they say in their topline statements,' said Vivek Parekh, a program manager tracking corporate engagement on methane policies at nonprofit thinktank InfluenceMap. 'They’ve actually been engaging and advocating quite intensively to weaken the U.S. methane regulations.'"
W. Kamau Bell speaks to a crowd in front of Oakland’s city hall with an American flag in the foreground
A hand holds a cardboard sign reading “Democracy requires our courage” in front of the Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland, CA
Invitation reading: "You are invited to join us as a special guest of Harold Hamm for an exclusive watch party of the inauguration of the 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Monday, January 20, 2025, 11 A.M. - 4 P.M., Top of the Hay at the historic Hay Adams Hotel, 800 16th Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20006. Please RSVP for you and a guest at your earliest convenience to Melissa at 405.234.9419. Hosted by Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, joined by Unleash Prosperity. Presenting Sponsors: Devon, Select, American Petroleum Institute, and Continental Resources. Platinum Sponsors: Haines Capital Bank, Hilliary, JMA Energy Company, Le Norman Companies, and Summit Agricultural Group. Industry Leader Sponsors: Endurance Lift Solutions, Liberty, Merit Advisors, Mid-States Companies, The Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, and Whitten Burrage."
AXPC slide titled "Regulatory Support: Methane Tax & Subpart W" with a bullet point reading "Interjected into the 2024 elections (AFPI MERP op-ed)" highlighted. There is also a screenshot of an op-ed published by The Hill titled "America's first federal emissions tax will only increase emissions."
The front page of the New York Times for 11/28/2024 with an article titled “Influencers Aid Industry’s Fight to Save Plastic” highlighted.
Screenshot of event flyer: Canary Live Bay Area Brought to you by Canary Media Mayor Eduardo Martinez, Sen. Nancy Skinner, Sammy Roth, David Roberts, Caroline Spears, Jeff St. John
Screenshot of a table of contents for "AXPC's 2025 Policy Roadmap to Unleash American Energy."
Slide titled "2025 Planning Permitting Reform" showing that, under unified R control, oil & gas lobbyist AXPC sees "overly biased approaches could leave policies/projects more vulnerable to litigation" as a risk/wildcard.
Slide titled "2025 Planning Methane Tax" showing that, under unified R control, oil & gas lobbyist AXPC sees "Republican push for full repeal of IRA (e.g. grants)" as a risk/wildcard.
Slide titled "2025 Planning OOOO b/c and Subpart W" showing that, under a Trump White House, oil & gas lobbyist AXPC fears "[they] may be caught in the middle between R supporters and investors/stakeholders" as a risk/wildcard.
Slide titled "2025 Planning IDCs" showing that, under unified R control, oil & gas lobbyist AXPC sees "populist pusback" as a risk/wildcard.
Screenshot of text: And on Friday, the Post reported that an oil industry trade group called the American Exploration and Production Council (AXPC) has joined in the Project 2025 trend of carefully writing down their evil plans. An investigative group called Fieldnotes obtained documents outlining essentially a gleeful wishlist for a subservient president: roll back a half-dozen or more Biden executive orders, kill a methane emissions tax, and more. The plans are grim enough that AXPC members as comically evil as ExxonMobil attempted to distance themselves from them once they became public.
A slide titled "The Great Divide: Flaring" shows that nine out of 19 AXPC companies surveyed increased their flaring intensity between 2021 and 2023.
Four people pose for a photo. From left to right: Eric Greager (Baytex Energy President & CEO), JD Vance, Anne Bradbury (AXPC CEO), and Rick Muncrief (Devon Energy President & CEO)
Screenshot of a table of contents titled "AXPC's 2025 Policy Roadmap to Unleash American Energy"