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Posts in February 2009

• Obama Targets $30 Billion Oil and Gas Subsidies

  Andy Rowell

  Feb27

  Who would be an oil baron these days? Profits are down, the oil price is bouncing depressingly around in the mid-forties, reserves are running dry, and the promised land of tar sands is not looking that promising after all. And the global economy is going down the pan, so demand for your product is likely…
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• Co-Op Funds Tar Sands Legal Challenge

  Andy Rowell

  Feb26

  The fight over tar sands is definitely hotting up. Britain’s leading “ethical” bank, the Co-operative will announce today that it is to help fund a legal challenge by the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, which claims the boom in dirty tar sands extraction is destroying their ancestral hunting lands.

• Great Rhetoric Versus Political Reality

  Andy Rowell

  Feb25

  The pundits have been positively purring over President Obama’s first address to Congress, where he warned of the “day of reckoning.” “We will rebuild, we will recover,” Mr Obama said, adding: “Now is the time to act boldly and wisely.” The speech was Obama’s most upbeat assessment of recovery yet, after months of warning how…
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• Nuclear Spin Doctors Win As Greens Go Pro-Nukes

  Andy Rowell

  Feb24

  Earlier this month, the crème of the nuclear industry spin doctors gathered in Edinburgh in Scotland at the posh Sheraton Hotel. The event, known as PIME 2009, is where they outline their public relations techniques as to how to try and sell a dangerous, expensive and dirty fuel as green, clean and climate friendly.

• 1/3 of China’s CO2 Emissions “Due to West”

  Andy Rowell

  Feb23

  One of the flawed arguments of the Bush Administration was that it could not act unilaterally on reducing CO2 emissions as it would put the American economy at a competitive disadvantage. It therefore could not act until China and India acted too. As China is the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide, much of the…
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• Obama Agrees: There is “No Silver Bullet”

  Andy Rowell

  Feb20

  Never has a President’s words been scrutinised in so much detail, with people looking for a sign or slip about what he is thinking. Analysts and journalists have poured over his remarks during his brief trip to Canada on NAFTA, Afghanistan, climate change, clean energy and tar sands.

• Messages to Obama: There is no “Silver Bullet” Over Tar Sands

  Andy Rowell

  Feb19

  You expected President Obama’s visit to Ottawa later today to create quite a stir, but the New President is being bombarded with letters, banners, adverts and interviews all with one message – to back away from Canada’s dirty tar sands. Obama promised a new kind of politics where he will listen to the voices of…
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• Obama Bets on Unproven Carbon Capture “Technology”

  Andy Rowell

  Feb18

  Eight months ago, in June 2008 President Obama was trying to improve his green credentials. The press were reporting how Obama may “Say no to Canadian tar sands”. One press report at the time noted that “Barack Obama took aim at the Alberta oilsands, declaring he would break America’s addiction to ‘dirty, dwindling, and dangerously…
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• Economic Collapse Leads to Supply Crunch and Less Renewables

  Andy Rowell

  Feb17

  First it was the credit crunch, now it looks like an oil crunch. The International Energy Agency is warning that, due to the economic downturn and reduced investment in oil, when demand picks up next year there may not be enough oil to go round. Nobuo Tanaka, the IEA’s executive director, said that he expected…
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• The Marathon of the Penguins

  Andy Rowell

  Feb13

  “The March of the Penguins” made Warner Brothers millions, but maybe the film giant should do a sequel called “The Marathon of the Penguins”. Latest scientific research shows that penguins from the largest colony in mainland South America are being forced to swim the equivalent of two marathons farther to find food because of climate…
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