Electricity

Does a viral video include real courthouse footage covering a $3 million lawsuit brought by the family of a man who died from electrocution while trying to steal "electric copper wire" from a vehicle charging station? No, that's not true: The shot purporting to show "Darius Johnson's" family was real, but was taken from the coverage of an unrelated case.…

Did Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, say, "Jesus Christ didn't have electricity either and he did just fine" while explaining President Donald Trump's tariff policies? No, that's not true: None of Leavitt's press briefings before the purported quote appeared online included that remark. There is evidence that the supposed quote originated in a joke response from a Reddit…

Did Canada plan to stop sending energy to the United States in February 2025 because of President Donald Trump's tariffs? No, that's not true: After a call between the two leaders on February 3, 2025, both Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump said separately that tariffs were delayed for 30 days. As of this publication, Canada did not say…

Did a Facebook post prove Elon Musk and Taylor Swift jointly endorsed a power-saving device called "Stop Watt"? No, that's not true: There is no record of either Musk or Swift publicly endorsing this product. Photos used in social media posts that reported the supposed endorsement were found to have likely been AI-generated. These posts included a link to a…

Has the Department of Transportation under Secretary Pete Buttigieg spent $7.5 billion on only eight EV charging stations? No, that's not true: Much of the money set aside for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program has yet to be spent as states apply for grants to fund EV charging projects. According to the Federal Highway Administration, 214 charging ports have…

Did inflation "since Biden and Kamala took over" cause a New York City barbershop owner to experience unusually high electric bills, as a post on social media says? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for Con Edison, the utility company that provides power to New York City residents, told Lead Stories the barber's recent bill was in error and that…

Do viral images authentically capture the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Milton at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida? No, that's not true: Those pictures were generated by AI and first posted on a website with a satire label. On October 11, 2024, Disney announced it had reopened its theme parks. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Did humans artificially create Antarctica's ice cap in order to boost energy emissions from frozen metals? No, that's not true: Scientists say Antarctica began freezing about 34 million years ago due to a drop in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That's about 28 million years before the earliest humans walked the Earth and about 34 million years before artificial refrigeration…

Does a photo show Moscow "dark due to severe electricity shortage" in August 2024? No, that's not true: The image of the Kremlin without its lights on is from 2014 and was taken for a World Wildlife Fund event. The photo does not show Moscow in 2024 amid the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are no reports of electricity…

Did the Kamala Harris campaign produce an AI image of a fake rally crowd and then distribute that picture? No, that's not true: The image in question was first published on the internet by a self-described parody account not affiliated with her campaign. That parody account subsequently posted again to say that the picture was "generated with AI." Lead Stories…