Weather Report #4: The Taxman Works for the ATF and Puerto Rico Municipalities Climate RICO Update

This week I released the first genuine investigation that Heavy Weather has ever done. It's about the president of a company who had nearly $90,000 in Puerto Rico government contracts declaring himself guilty of COVID-19 relief aid fraud. After I started investigating, both of the company's contracts were cancelled. The article did not get the traction I hoped for on social media, so if you want to share it with somebody, please do!

Onwards to this week's Weather Report, which is shorter than I would have hoped because of all the time I spent on the aforementioned investigation. Nonetheless, there are some interesting bits of information in there.

The news and media recommendations are paywalled, but everything else is free. If you would like to see what articles, books, music, and other types of media I recommend you consume, become a paid subscriber today for as low as $3!

Here's the roundup this week:

1. At least one employee of Puerto Rico's Treasury Department (Hacienda) has been "deputized" by the ATF, shining a pinprick of light into how state and federal agencies collaborate in Puerto Rico.
2. A short summary of the objections to the report and recommendation in the Puerto Rico Municipalities Climate RICO case.
3. Links to articles about the very good video game Metaphor Re:Fantazio, resources on technofeudalists and the Network State, how Trump's climate policies are changing research in Puerto Rico, and the fight for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
4. One very good comic recommendation fit for the times of crises we are all going through right now.
5. The YouTube playlist that I listened to while writing this post.

The Taxman Works for the ATF

At least one Puerto Rico Treasury Department (Departamento de Hacienda, in Spanish) is "assigned as a deputized Task Force Officer" with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), according to an affidavit signed by Hacienda employee Carlos Alcoba.

While much of the affidavit contains the boilerplate language common to these sort of federal affidavits, it provides a small insight into how Puerto Rico's state tax agency collaborates with a federal law enforcement agency, something that is not well known in the archipelago because this type of thing rarely gets the attention it deserves on the archipelago.

Alcoba assists in "conducting investigations into the unlawful possessions of firearms" and has participated in investigations relating to firearms trafficking and confidential informants, according to the affidavit. The document came about because the Carolina municipal cops consulted with the ATF about a case concerning a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

"Task Force Officers (TFOs)" are state, local, or tribal law enforcement officers that are temporarily assigned to work with federal law enforcement agencies. Being deputized as a TFO allows a state law enforcement officer to operate under a certain federal agency's authority and "work hand-in-hand with ATF on criminal investigations and have direct access to ATF electronic and information resources," according to an ATF fact sheet from 2015.

The affidavit doesn't include anything else about the type of work Alcoba does, the specifics of any ongoing investigations, or if any more Hacienda agents have been deputized by the ATF.

"In the interest of conserving the sensitive nature of the information you request, I am not at liberty to disclose the amount of Department of the Treasury agents that serve as ATF TFOs," said Clara Himel, an ATF spokesperson, in an emailed statement.

An email to two of the people on Hacienda's communications office page went unresponded. When I called, I was left on hold twice for upwards of fifteen minutes without getting through to anybody.

The fact that at least one Hacienda employee has been deputized by the ATF is an ironic return to tradition for the federal law enforcement agency because it used to be part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury before it was moved over to the Department of Justice.

Heavy Weather has filed a records request with both Hacienda and the ATF concerning Hacienda employees who work as TFOs for the ATF.

Heavy Weather has uploaded the court document to Courtlistener. You can also find it below:

Objection! to Report and Recommendation in Municipalities Climate RICO Case

A magistrate judge filed a report and recommendation in the world's first ever climate RICO case – which was brought by Puerto Rico's municipalities against the fossil fuel industry in late 2022 – about a month ago. While the report moved to dismiss some claims, it held steady that the fossil fuel industry will have to face some of the municipalities' RICO claims.

The municipalities and the fossil fuel industry defendants filed their objections to the report and recommendation yesterday. While the municipalities welcomed some of the findings in the report, they objected to limiting jurisdictional discovery, dismissing state law claims, and dismissing some of the RICO claims against the defendants, and dismissing RICO charges against the American Petroleum Institute (API).

I am not going to go into the minutiae of all the arguments the municipalities or the defendants are making, but I found this quote from the municipalities' objection fairly important: "unlike counties and cities in the United States, Puerto Rican municipalities operate under a unique statutory regime that expressly empowers them to act to protect the public welfare."

The companies all made similar arguments to each other. I'm not going to get into each of them, but here's a sampler:

The fossil fuel industry pretty much wants all the charges dropped, especially the RICO charges. In the case of Occidental Petroleum, it makes the case that the municipalities are only making allegations against its subsidiary Anadarko. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil says that the municipalities amended complaint failed to be particular enough and didn't give them enough information about who received each alleged misrepresentation the municipalities mentioned in their amended complaint, when it was made, and its specific content. API, the largest oil and gas trade association, says that Puerto Rico lacks personal jurisdiction over them because it never sold or marketed any fossil fuels on the archipelago.

In semi-related news, the Municipality of San Juan, which has its own similar but separate climate RICO case, urged the federal court to consolidate its case with the municipalities case.

One funny-t0-me thing found in the municipalities objection is that they say increased reliance on fossil fuels directly led to the climate-related destruction Puerto Ricans have endured at the same time that our governor ended interim renewable energy targets established in 2019 and is going full throttle with LNG in collaboration with a company that is quickly approaching bankruptcy.

This was part of one of the first essays I wrote for this blog and my only regret is not going harder on how states can easily backtrack renewable laws, as Puerto Rico has just done. I will probably elaborate on this further in a future essay and tie it back to the "catastrophic effects of fossil fuel consumption" the Puerto Rico government is fighting against in these lawsuits.

Even though Hawaii and Puerto Rico present scenarios at either end of the spectrum, they illustrate a great problem with these types of goals — they present themselves as the only solution to mitigate the climate crisis while providing enough lag time so that it looks like they’re doing something when they could be doing so much more. While these “clean energy” laws and mandates are unequivocally steps in the right direction, reaching them relies on coordinated efforts the likes of which have never been seen before or deus ex machina technologies that don’t exist and likely never will.

These laws are science fiction stories selling a utopian future built without a map. Many of these pledges and laws provide interim targets, but they don't provide a detailed plan that consists decommissioning fossil fuel plants and installing renewable ones.

Heavy Weather has uploaded the objections to Courtlistener.

That's it for this Weather Report's free content this week. If you want to read this week's news and media recommendations, become a subscriber today!