One of the unseen consequences of the lower gas prices in North America is that it is actually making it cheaper to extract the tar sands.
And that in turn is giving tar sands operators the confidence to expand production. So bizarrely cheap cleaner gas is fuelling the exploitation of the dirty tar sands.  

Anyone following the palm oil debate would not have been surprised by the findings of the BBC’s top investigative programme Panorama earlier in the week, which investigated the industry.
Using GPS technology and satellite imaging, the BBC exposed how the palm oil giant Duta Palma Group is logging on both high conservation lands and deep peat [...]

The showdown between Argentina and Britain over the Falklands is not the only row brewing on the international oil scene.
A bitter battle is brewing between oil giants such as Shell and Chevron and the Nigerian government over proposed reforms of the oil and gas sector.
The oil companies are threatening that up to $50 billion of [...]

The start of an unusual mobilisation of pension fund members has been kicked off by the British organisation FairPensions to hold BP and Shell to account for their investment in the dirty Canadian tar sands.
The idea is simple: individuals can contact their pension funds, through an online action, to show support of environmental resolutions that [...]

Change may only happen in small steps, but slowly and surely the geo-politics of oil are changing.
The dynamics of Middle Eastern oil are in transition. Anyone who argued that the war in the Gulf was a war about oil should sit up and take notice.  And anyone concerned about the climate should also be worried. [...]