The Independent Petroleum Producers Association is currently in overdrive parading a commissioned study that makes a number of claims about its member’s value to the economy. According to the study, independent oil and gas producers drill most of the wells in the country, create millions of jobs and pay billions in taxes and royalties. Furthermore, … Read More
Month: April 2011
“We simply can’t afford wasteful subsidies”
No wonder those oil boys at the American Petroleum have launched a campaign to try and stop further “tax increases” (read: subsidy removal) on the industry. They know that Obama is on their back. Yesterday, the President wrote to the House Speaker John Boehner, and other political leaders asking them to take “immediate action to … Read More
API’s Latest “Ridiculous” Anti-Tax Campaign
Any regular reading of this blog will know that that the good old American Petroleum Institute (API) is fairly wizard-like when it comes to conjuring up numbers of how many people the industry supports or employs. Up to September 2009, the API had often repeated statements such as “The oil and gas industry employs nearly … Read More
“I don’t see any daylight at the end of this tunnel”
At 10.00 AM today, BP’s 80,000 employees marked a minute’s silence in memory of those who died on the Deepwater Horizon, exactly a year ago. Meanwhile in the Gulf, relatives of the 11 men who died aboard the Deepwater Horizon are flying over the rig site, back to the epicenter of the disaster. On land, … Read More
World Bank Executives: Stop Defending Dirty Energy for the Poor
The World Bank Group, perhaps the best-known publicly-funded international development institution, is pitched in an important battle over the future of its energy lending. Unfortunately, if some Bank executives have their way, the new Energy Strategy will become a blueprint for straddling the world’s poorest nations and people with dangerous and polluting energy. That’s because … Read More
10,000 March for Climate Justice
About 10,000 activists marched yesterday in Washington on the “Make Big Polluters Pay” march. The march was the culmination of the third “PowerShift” event. Over the weekend activists had heard speeches from the likes of former Vice President Al Gore, and US EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. In a speech on Friday night, Gore underlined how … Read More
BP “wanted control of the science”
This Wednesday is going to be a painful day for many. The first Anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon will be a deeply painful day for many of the workers who were on the fateful rig, and the families of the deceased. We must remember that eleven people died that day. At least 40 workers were … Read More
Why We Need to Confront Dirty Energy Money
The current Congress is awash in Dirty Energy Money, and the fossil fuel industry is certainly getting its money’s worth these days. In the face of rising gas prices, the top 5 oil companies have reported nearly a trillion (yes, trillion) dollars in profits over the past ten years. Yet these same companies receive billions … Read More
Join this Friday’s Rally at the World Bank: Support Clean Energy for the Poor
We need your help this Friday to call on the World Bank Group to direct its energy lending to provide healthy, clean energy access to the world’s poor. Currently, 1.4 billion people mostly in rural Asia and Africa are without access to electricity. The World Bank says that alleviating this energy poverty is one of … Read More
One Year Later: BP’s Contamination Continues
BP’s AGM tomorrow is set to be a tumultuous affair with the oil giant having to absorb criticism over the legacy of the it’s catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, its investment in the dirty Canadian tar sands and its dodgy deal with the Russian Rosneft to drill in the Arctic. Throw in … Read More
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