UnitedHealthcare CEO killing latest: Luigi Mangione expected to waive extradition in court Thursday

(WASHINGTON) — The United States has seen a significant increase in the use of clean energy over the last few years; however, Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of energy, has claimed otherwise.

Wright, chief executive of Liberty Energy — the world’s second-largest fracking services company — has made several comments chastising efforts to fight climate change. One example is a video he posted to LinkedIn last year in which he denies the existence of a climate crisis and disputes a global transition to green energy.

“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright said.

Wright has been an outspoken critic of policies aimed at curbing climate change, including the Department of Energy’s goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

While Wright does not dispute the existence of climate change, he has argued that policies aimed at reducing the impact of climate change are misguided and alarmist, claiming that any negative impacts of climate change are “clearly overwhelmed by the benefits of increasing energy consumption.”

But the IPCC, the world’s most authoritative body on climate change, has stated that human-amplified climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe, and this has led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people.

And the clean energy momentum the country is experiencing will continue as alternative sources of fuel take more market share in the energy sector, experts told ABC News. That’s despite efforts by Republican politicians to bolster the fossil fuel industry in the U.S.

The Department of Energy’s website even states, “A clean energy revolution is taking place across America, underscored by the steady expansion of the U.S. renewable energy sector.”

And the world now invests almost twice as much in clean energy as it does in fossil fuels. Investment in solar panels now surpasses all other generation technologies combined, according to the International Energy Agency.

“The U.S. is definitely in an energy transition, as is the rest of the globe,” Lori Bird, U.S. energy program director at the World Resource Institute, told ABC News.

Coal is one of the industries in which the energy transition is most apparent, Bird said.

Coal plants are seeing an average of 10,000 megawatts of capacity closures per year, according to the Institute for the Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Installed U.S. coal-fired generation capacity peaked in 2011 at 317,600 megawatts and has experienced a consistent downward trend ever since, the analysis found. In 2020, during the pandemic, coal’s share of power generation in the U.S. fell below 20% for the first time. In 2024 so far, coal’s share of power generation barely topped 16%.

“Based on current announcements and IEEFA research, we expect operating coal capacity to continue its steady decline for the remainder of the decade,” the report states.

Accompanying the sharp decrease in coal generation and usage has been the increase in capacity and storage for electricity generation from solar, wind and battery power, Bird said.

A record 31 gigawatts of solar energy capacity was installed in the U.S. in 2023 — roughly a 55% increase from 2022, according to a report by the World Resource Institute that found that clean energy continues to be the dominant form of new electricity generation in the U.S.

“Everywhere you look, in every facet of the economy, there are clean technologies ramping up and being brought to bear,” Julie McNamara, senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told ABC News.

In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act stimulated an “unprecedented” slate for the creation of domestic clean energy manufacturing facilities, the report found. Since August 2022, 113 manufacturing facilities or expansions, totaling $421 billion in investments, have been announced, according to American Clean Power.

The Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that came before it includes tax credits for both the home and commercial installation of charging stations for electric vehicles, evidence in the growing market share for EVs, which reached 10% in U.S. automotive sales in the third quarter of 2024, Bird said.

But the federal government isn’t the ultimate decider of the energy transition in the U.S., Bird said. While there could be a slowdown in progress during the next administration, the energy transition will continue to be driven by other stakeholders “who want this to happen,” she said.

“It would be impossible to halt the energy transition at this stage,” Bird said.

States in the U.S. are also continuing to pass ambitious climate and energy policies, a trend experts expect to continue despite who is living in the White House. State actions are considered critical to ensuring a successful clean energy transition, as federal actions alone are insufficient, according to the WRI. There are 29 states that have renewable electricity standards or clean energy standards in place, and a third of U.S. states have have standards to shift to 100% clean electricity, Bird said.

At the beginning of 2023, Minnesota adopted a 100% clean energy standard, while Michigan did the same later that year, joining states like California and New York in passing permitting reforms intended to make it easier to build clean energy and transmission.

“While the federal leadership may slow some of this transition, it’s being driven by states,” Bird said.

Another critical piece of the energy transition is tech companies, which are very large users of energy. committing to using sustainable energy to power their data centers, Bird said. One example is Microsoft paying to restart one of the nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania to power the company’s AI data center.

“Those companies that are driving a lot of this want clean energy,” Bird said. “That’s not going to go away. They’re committed.”

Throughout the 2024 election, Republicans stuck to party lines when it comes to rhetoric about the fossil fuel industry, which invests heavily into GOP politicians and candidates, David Konisky, a professor of environmental politics at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, told ABC News in August. The rhetoric often includes misrepresentations on clean energy solutions rather than all-out climate denial, experts told ABC News.

The fossil fuel industry, through its lobbying in government, has attempted to slow any efforts at the energy transition, McNamara said.

“The only reason to say there’s no energy transition underway is to attempt to solidify policies and incentives that that anchor short-term profits for fossil fuel interests,” McNamara said.

Misinformation and disinformation about the climate crisis is “not helpful to the situation,” especially given that people all over the world are already experiencing the impacts of a warming climate in the form of extreme weather events, Bird said, adding that bipartisan support will be crucial going forward.

“We’re hopeful that with the new administration, that additional progress could be made,” Bird said.

ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Matthew Glasser, Calvin Milliner and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., held Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for violating a court order that barred him from making false and defamatory statements against two Georgia election workers after they secured a $148 million defamation judgement against the former New York City mayor in 2023.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell admonished the former New York City mayor for continuing to spread lies about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in November on his web show, saying she hoped that sitting through trial and agreeing to a consent judgement would have made Giuliani “stop saying such fabricated lies.”

The judge asked Giuliani, “$148 million wasn’t a sufficient incentive to stop the defamation?”

Giuliani was ordered by Howell to file a declaration acknowledging that he reviewed testimony and evidence from the defamation trial and that no testimony or government report contradicted the two election workers. Howell issued a $200 fine for each day Giuliani does not comply with the deadline to submit the declaration.

If Giuliani engages in further violations, Howell said the court would have to consider imprisonment or confinement.

“It is outrageous and shameful,” Howell said while reading her verdict. “This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giuliani.”

Last week, a federal judge in New York also held Giuliani in contempt of court for failing to turn over personal property and information to the two election workers.

During the hearing on Friday, Giuliani took the stand briefly to go over bank documents from Giuliani’s bankruptcy case that showed his assets and liabilities that Giuliani has claimed are exempt assets including his house in Palm Beach, Florida, valued at $3.5 million.

When asked to verify bank accounts, Giuliani said, “They’re not my accounts, I don’t have access to them.” The former mayor said that because his accounts were frozen and because he is not able to withdraw from them, the bank accounts are not his.

“Illegally, you have tied up everything I have,” Giuliani said.

Michael Gottlieb, an attorney for Freeman and Moss, pressed Giuliani over payments he made in November, the same month he made the alleged defamatory statements about the election workers. Payments include taxes and utility payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

Gottlieb added the money should come from the assets Giuliani has said are exempt from creditor claims.

“We haven’t been able to come up with any other way we believe compliance can be coerced,” Gottlieb said.

He added, “The main thing the plaintiffs want is for Giuliani to stop defaming them.”

“I am very concerned based on the statements made today that Mr. Giuliani may not be persuaded from making statements without more severe sanctions,” Judge Howell said.

Ted Goodman, the former mayor’s adviser, said in a statement, “The public should know that Mayor Rudy Giuliani never had the opportunity to defend himself on the facts in the defamation case. This is an important point that many Americans still don’t realize due to biased coverage and a campaign to silence Mayor Giuliani. This contempt ruling is designed to prevent Mayor Giuliani from exercising his constitutional rights.”

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As Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Manhattan Criminal Court this morning, protesters from all walks of life assembled outside the courthouse to show their support for the alleged killer.

While their reasons to bear the 11-degree weather varied — including personal healthcare issues, concerns about inequality and distrust of the media — they were seemingly united in their support for the 26-year-old whose alleged actions have ignited a nationwide conversation about healthcare.

Pushing her 1-year-old son, Emmanuel, in a stroller, 37-year-old Alicia Thomas from the South Bronx said her experience giving birth while on Medicaid helped her relate to Mangione’s grievances with the healthcare industry. Suffering from a postpartum hemorrhage, she said she wanted to spend more than two days in the hospital after giving birth but couldn’t afford care beyond what Medicaid provided.

Thomas said she believes Mangione is innocent — framing him as a victim of the healthcare industry and justice system — but said his case has brought light to the need to improve healthcare.

“It sparked a catalyst to think about what kind of world we are going to leave our children,” she said, showing a Justo Juez prayer candle she plans to light for Mangione. “Our generation has seen so much devastation throughout the years, and our children are going to suffer at the hands of corporate greed.”

Prosecutors allege that Mangione meticulously planned and carried out the murder of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on the morning of Dec. 4 before fleeing the state to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested days later at a McDonald’s. According to the federal complaint, Mangione was in possession of a notebook in which he expressed hostility to healthcare executives, described the insurance industry as his target because it “checks every box,” and laid out his intent to “whack” Thompson at UnitedHealthcare’s investors conference.

While Mangione did not have family in court on Monday, about two dozen women attended the arraignment in the public section of the gallery, many of them voicing support for Mangione.

“This is a grave injustice, and that’s why people are here,” one of the women, who said she arrived at the courthouse at 5 a.m., told ABC News.

Outside court, protestors rallied for Mangione, chanting “Eat the rich,” “Hey, hey, ho, ho, these CEOs have got to go,” and “Free, free Luigi.”

Nicholas Zamudio, 33, said he came to the protest after spending over $100,000 out of pocket for his treatment after an electric injury in 2021. Holding a sign that read “United States Healthcare Stole My Livelihood. Prosecute Malicious Profiteers,” Zamudio said he doesn’t know if he will be able to afford his ongoing treatment for nerve damage.

“I don’t have insurance, I’ve drained my 401K. I’ve drained everything that I have, and come January I will be trying to keep a roof over my head by couch hopping amongst friends. I’ve lost everything and that’s what brought me out here,” he said.

Zamudio said he found comfort in Mangione’s writings about his spinal injury, noting they both received similar spinal fusion operations.

“He talked about not being able to sleep, laying in pain, things like that,” he said. “I guess a lot kind of resonated with me in regards to the pain and not getting help with the healthcare system. I think murder is obviously wrong, but it did bring us to a point we needed to get to.”

Law enforcement has raised concerns about the outpouring of support for Mangione and hostility towards healthcare industry since Thompson’s killing, with multiple police bulletins warning about the increased risk to healthcare executives. UnitedHealth Group’s CEO Andrew Witty appeared to acknowledge the public sentiment, writing in an opinion essay in the New York Times earlier this month that he “understand people’s frustrations” with healthcare and vowed to “to find ways to deliver high-quality care and lower costs.”

“[W]e also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats. No employees — be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes — should have to fear for their and their loved ones’ safety,” Witty wrote.

While the specifics of Mangione’s grievances with the healthcare injury remain unclear — and we do not know if his personal issues with the healthcare system motivated his alleged actions — many of the protesters came to their own conclusions about what motivated the alleged killer.

A 26-year-old woman from Queens who preferred to go unnamed said she related to Mangione after she fell off her parent’s healthcare plan and couldn’t afford COBRA coverage. Having gone uninsured for months, she said she believes the healthcare system is broken based on her inability to find a good plan despite days of effort calling different insurance companies.

“I spent an entire month — 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with three phones in front of me — waiting on the phone on hold to get access to these people. They put me through circles and circles and circles,” she said.

Another woman from Brooklyn said she came to court because she believed Mangione was bringing attention to the need for universal healthcare in the United States. She added that she didn’t trust the media coverage of Mangione’s case and wanted to see the proceedings with her own eyes to draw conclusions.

“There was a lot of support from where we were in the back [of court],” she said after attending the arraignment in person. “I believe it’s a conversation that a lot of people are having now, and whatever we can do to help progress this conversation is worthy of participating in.”

Bill Dobbs, who lives in Manhattan, said he was motivated to support Mangione after federal prosecutors charged the 26-year-old with a crime that carries the death penalty. He held a sign that read “Justice not Vengeance.”

“It’s very alarming there could be a death penalty,” he said. “Punishment has got to leave a chance for change, and the death penalty doesn’t.”

Mangione’s disdain for the healthcare industry only added to his reasons to support the alleged killer, Dobbs said.

“What’s going on in the private healthcare industry is scandalous,” he said.

While most of the protestors said they believed Mangione was innocent, their support for Mangione carried an implicit incongruence — Is Mangione an innocent victim or a martyr for confronting the healthcare industry through his alleged actions? Many protestors who spoke with ABC News reconciled the beliefs by referencing the plague of mass shootings impacting the United States, claiming that the attention on Mangione and terrorism label is evidence of a broken justice system.

“He’s an alleged shooter, but how many school shooters are labeled with terrorism. How many?” asked one protestor.

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