A press release from the law firm of Fishman Haygood LLP, with offices in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, provides one of the least surprising bits of news so far in 2024…

Fishman Haygood, L.L.P. announced today that Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards will join the firm when he leaves office on January 8.

An accomplished attorney, Edwards will work with Fishman Haygood’s business and litigation teams, which are consistently recognized by peers and clients for their experience, professionalism and innovation. In his new role as special counsel, Edwards will focus on renewable energy.

Fishman Haygood occupies a unique place among Louisiana-based firms. Corporate and litigation attorneys advise businesses in sophisticated matters locally, nationally and globally. On the transactional side, the firm is engaged in several renewable energy and energy efficiency deals and projects. In complex litigation, the firm has tried cases for plaintiffs and defendants, both companies and individuals, in high-stakes state, federal and international matters.

As governor, Edwards’ efforts to position Louisiana as a leader participating in and benefiting from the energy transition makes him a natural fit at Fishman Haygood, which values ingenuity. Under Edwards’ administration, the state already has garnered $50 billion in private sector capital investments for both low- and no-carbon projects. With opportunities in Louisiana’s renewable energy sector expanding, Edwards looks to continue playing a leading role in this emerging market.

For its part, Fishman Haygood is currently representing the landowner in a series of agreements with a subsidiary of Talos Energy, a leading Houston-based energy company which actively participates in carbon capture and storage opportunities. The firm also is engaged in local and national litigation to enforce the plugging of non-productive oil wells and the removal of abandoned equipment, which blight the environment and interfere with landowner property rights.

“We are thrilled to have the governor join our team,” said Fishman Haygood Managing Partner John Werner. “John Bel has been a proven leader throughout his life, including his recent efforts to grow the renewable energy sector in Louisiana. We are excited that he has chosen to join us in this next phase of his career.”

“John Bel forged one of the best formulated climate plans in the country, benefitting Louisiana’s economy and coastline,” said Fishman Haygood Partner Jim Swanson. “He understands the business and litigation sides of our practice, and we believe his unique perspective will bring value to our team and our clients.”

Everybody could see this coming half a world away, when Edwards jet-setted his way to Scotland for that climate change conference a couple of years ago. That trip wasn’t about economic development for Louisiana; it was about Edwards positioning himself to cash in on the office after eight years presiding over economic malaise and mass outmigration.

He pushed all that Green New Deal garbage on the state, from offshore wind energy to useless carbon capture projects, because when he leaves office he knew that he would be uniquely positioned to command payoffs in the form of massive legal fees.

We all know this. Everybody understands this is a grift. None of the projects John Bel Edwards will now be leeching off state and federal government bureaucrats on behalf of Fishman Haygood and its clients are “sustainable” in the sense that they’re going to turn real profits not subsidized by taxpayers – mostly without our consent.

The challenge Louisiana’s incoming governor Jeff Landry and the newly-elected state legislature is going to face is to give a massive amount of scrutiny to this “best-formulated climate plan” of Edwards’ and, where appropriate (which is going to be the vast majority of it), to tear it apart.

If that’s done correctly it won’t even get headlines. But even if the dismantling of this massive grift infrastructure Edwards has set himself up to cash in from does generate a media pushback that the Fishman Haygoods of the world will demand – stuck pigs being the loudest squealers, as we all know – it still needs to be done.

Yes, but what about the climate? Won’t breaking up Edwards’ Rube Goldberg plan and his new Fishman Haygood cash machine plunge us under the ocean waves?

Yeah, OK.

Here’s an interesting alternate perspective on carbon dioxide emissions from someone with far better credentials as an environmentalist than John Bel Edwards can claim…

According to Patrick Moore, chairman and chief scientist of Ecosense Environmental and co-founder of the environmental organization Greenpeace, the climate change messaging isn’t based in fact.

“The whole thing is a total scam,” Mr. Moore said. “There is actually no scientific evidence that CO2 is responsible for climate change over the eons.”

Mr. Moore said that over the past few decades, the climate message has repeatedly changed; first, it was global cooling, then global warming, then climate change, and now, it’s disastrous weather.

“They’re saying all the tornadoes, all the hurricanes, all the floods, and all the heat waves are all caused by CO2. That is a lie. … We’re part of the cycle,” he said.

“We don’t need CO2. For us, it’s a waste product—we need oxygen. But plants are the ones who made the oxygen for us, and we’re making the CO2 back for them.”

He said the burning of fossil fuels—which emits CO2—is a good thing for plant life.

“We are replenishing the atmosphere with CO2 up to a level that is much more conducive to life and growth of plants, in particular.”

Weather-related deaths and climate disasters have in fact declined “precipitously” over the years, according to John Christy, a climatologist and professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the director of the Earth System Science Center.

In 1925, there was an average of 484,880 climate-related deaths worldwide, according to Human Progress. Since then, it’s steadily decreased, with the latest report, from 2020, showing there was an average of 14,893 climate-related deaths worldwide.

“CO2 is portrayed now as the cause of damaging extreme weather. Our research indicates these extremes are not becoming more intense or frequent,” Mr. Christy told The Epoch Times. “Thus, CO2 cannot be the cause of something not occurring.”

The U.N. is planning for countries to cut emissions to as close to zero as possible by 2050.

The plan is “collective suicide,” according to Malgosia Askanas, a senior research and development associate at Aurora Biophysics Research Institute.

Ms. Askanas said the concern over CO2 isn’t based on science.

“It started with the hysteria of the New Ice Age and a little-known CIA report in 1974 that claimed that a major climatic change was underway,” she said.

“Later, the ‘global cooling’ alarmism morphed into its opposite, by employing the false notion of global warming due to excess CO2—which is chemically a falsehood.”

That Epoch Times piece deserves a full reading. In it, John Christy notes that current CO2 levels in the atmosphere are near historic lows and, as Moore adds, frankly will make for difficult agricultural conditions if they go lower. CO2 levels ought to be many times higher than they are for a truly green planet – something that Edwards’ “climate plan” that he’ll now cash in on would do damage to.

But John Christy wasn’t welcome in Scotland like John Bel Edwards was. And certainly not because Edwards knows more about the climate and carbon dioxide’s relationship to it than Christy.

Just remember all this when you see Edwards treated like some elder statesman when he blathers on about the need to fill old oil wells with plant food, or some other such nonsense. And you’ll see it a lot as he sings for his supper at Fishman Haygood.