Greens Celebrate, As Nets Ignore Bloomberg’s $500M Assault on Coal – by Julia A. Seymour (NewsBusters.org – June 14, 2019)

https://www.newsbusters.org/

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg reannounced a $500-million effort to eradicate coal and natural gas use in the U.S. on June 6. ABC, CBS and NBC news didn’t even flinch.

That night the three broadcast evening shows made no time for the billionaire media mogul’s massive spending to shut down the rest of the nation’s coal plants by 2030 and start targeting natural gas plants. They also haven’t reported it since, much less scrutinized it even though he’s a high-profile liberal donor, media owner and maybe former politician.

“We’re in a race against time with climate change, and yet there is virtually no hope of bold federal action on this issue for at least another two years. Mother Nature is not waiting on our political calendar, and neither can we,” Bloomberg said of his Beyond Carbon initiative.

His foundation committed an additional $500 million to “move the U.S. toward a 100 percent clean energy economy as expeditiously as possible.” He already spent $100 million on past “Beyond Coal” efforts in partnership with the liberal Sierra Club.

He has also extended grants to other environmental groups including Advanced Energy Economy, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, League of Conservation Voters, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

He called the latest effort a “moonshot” goal and unveiled the plan at commencement for MIT’s graduating class.

Bloomberg’s own media outlet promoted the campaign in spite of that being a massive conflict of interest. In addition to Michael Bloomberg’s self-promotional piece about “our next moonshot,” Editor Mark Gongloff wrote an opinion column on June 7. It proclaimed “The Climate Crisis Is Here. It’s Time We Started Acting Like It.” Gongloff called “saving the world from catastrophic climate change” a “heroic effort,” and one that can start immediately as the former mayor plans to do.

For the rest of this article: https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/julia-seymour/2019/06/14/greens-celebrate-nets-ignore-bloombergs-500m-assault-coal