December | 2010 | The Price of Oil

Posts in December 2010

Your donation to Big Oil & Fracking Gas
Elizabeth Bast
Dec30
As all of us consider donations for the end of the year, here’s one acknowledgment letter that you should receive, but won’t: Dear average American taxpayer, As 2010 comes to a close, your friends in the oil industry would like to acknowledge your ongoing generosity and support. Last year, in addition to the roughly $2300…
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The “Great Oil Thief”
Andy Rowell
Dec18
The brutal reality of the resource curse in Africa is once again laid bare. The latest revelations from Wikileaks is that the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has siphoned $9bn in oil money and deposited it in foreign accounts, many of which are in London. Whilst the rest of the country languishes in brutal poverty, the…
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Another $20 Billion Bill for BP
Andy Rowell
Dec16
Shares in BP are falling this morning – 3 per cent in early trading so far – on the news that it could face penalties of $21 billion-plus if found fully liable for damages in a US federal lawsuit regarding the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster. But BP is not alone. The US Department of Justice…
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Deepwater’s Forgotten Villain
Andy Rowell
Dec15
When you think of the Deepwater disaster earlier this year, of course the main company responsible for the spill that springs to mind is BP, the operator of the rig. The next villain in the story is Transocean, the owner of the rig. One name that does not automatically jump out is Anadarko, the minority…
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USA Becomes A Fractured Nation
Andy Rowell
Dec14
On Saturday the outgoing Democratic governor of New York State, David Paterson ordered a seven-month moratorium on some natural gas drilling in the state. He issued an executive order prohibiting high-volume hydraulic fracturing of horizontally drilled wells. The order stands until July 1. Hydraulic fracturing which is also known as fracking, involves blasting millions of…
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From Life-Support to Life-Line
Andy Rowell
Dec13
So the car crash somehow didn’t happen. Somehow the groundhog talks managed to conjure up a deal in the last twenty four hours. A diplomatic rabbit was pulled by the Mexican hosts out of the hat. It is a deal of sorts, that keeps the show on the road, at least for now. “Confidence is…
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Zombies, Car-Crashes and Life-Support..
Andy Rowell
Dec10
It’s the last day at the Goundhog talks in Cancun and its going to be a late-nighter, that’s for sure. But whether anything meaningful comes from the Summit remains to be seen. This year’s summit was all about just keeping the talks on the road, not about radical deals, but even that limited goal seems…
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Nigeria: “Shell has access to everything”
Andy Rowell
Dec09
One of the main concerns of the Ogoni activist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa was the collusion between Shell and the Nigerian Government. We already know that this collusion went from the top levels of the government to routine logistical and financial support for the military. Saro-Wiwa once said that one of their protests was “anti-Shell,…
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Global Climate Fund In, World Bank Out
Elizabeth Bast
Dec08
With only a few days to go in the UN climate talks in Cancún, many questions remain on the outcomes, including on one of the most important issues currently on the table – climate finance. Finance in the context of the climate talks refers to funding for developing countries to address climate needs – financing…
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Canada’s Secret “Sensitivities” over Tar Sands
Andy Rowell
Dec08
Six years ago, in preparation for George Bush’s visit to the US, leaked Diplomatic cables by Wikileaks show that the ecological cost of the dirty sands was not seen as a diplomatic issue of contention. A message to President Bush by America’s Ambassador in Canada, noted that, in advance of Bush’s visit to Canada at…
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