May | 2011 | The Price of Oil

Posts in May 2011

“This is the worst news on emissions”
Andy Rowell
May31
When historians look back at the beginning of this century, one of the complex phenomena that they must unravel is that as the warnings about climate change got more severe, the stronger the conspiracy became that it was not happening. Take just the last 24 hours. Yesterday, the Guardian ran with the headline that “Worst…
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Regulator Acts Against Oil Speculators
Andy Rowell
May25
One of the political mantras of those old boys at the American Petroleum is that if the gas price is too high it means we have to drill for more oil. Plain and simple. Its good old fashioned economics: supply and demand. If the price is too high, we must be faced with a physical…
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Chevron Guilty: Clean Up the Amazon!
Andy Rowell
May24
Last week it was Shell’s AGM and its turn to face the wrath of shareholders and activists for its appalling environmental record. This week its Chevron’s turn with its AGM tomorrow. Protests kicked off in dramatic style yesterday, when activists from Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network rappelled from the Richmond Bridge in the San…
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Dash for Shale Gas Undermines Wind
Andy Rowell
May23
The last time that America’s pro-wind lobby came together for its regular get-together was in California in 2007. That time there were 5,000 attendees and the installed wind capacity in the US was 17 gigawatts. Four years later and on the surface it is a success story for America’s pro-wind lobby. Yesterday saw the opening…
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Empty threats should not be made at ‘friends’
Lorne Stockman
May19
Alberta’s minister of energy Ron Liepert was in New York this week and took the opportunity to threaten the State Department over the slow pace (as he sees it) of the approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline is designed to carry up to 900,000 barrels per day of mostly tar sands derived…
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And for Shell We Present an “Erratum”
Andy Rowell
May18
Sometimes the best protests are the most simple and symbolic. Yesterday, Shell’s shareholders and senior management at the company’s AGM in the Hague were presented with an “erratum” to the company’s recent Annual Report. The spoof report by Friends of the Earth looks like a real Shell report, until you start to read it. For…
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Senators Opposing End of Oil Subsidies Received Five Times More in Big Oil Campaign Cash
Steve Kretzmann
May17
Find out how much oil money your elected representatives take by visiting the Dirty Energy Money site. Washington, D.C.—U.S. Senators that blocked a vote on legislation to end taxpayer subsidies to oil companies have received five times more in campaign contributions from oil and gas interests than those who voted to begin debate, according to…
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BP’s Credibility in Tatters Again
Andy Rowell
May17
BP’s long-term strategic direction and its credibility with City analysts is in tatters this morning after its bid for a strategic alliance with Rosneft, the Russian state oil champion, collapsed late last night. A year on from the Deepwater disaster, this was the deal that was meant to revitalise BP’s reputation. This was the deal…
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The High Cost of Keeping Gas Prices Low
Andy Rowell
May16
The subsidy battle raging in Washington at the moment is all about what are known as “production” subsidies. These are subsidies that are paid to the oil majors to keep the oil and gas flowing. But there is also another type of subsidy: this is where governments, often in countries producing oil or developing countries,…
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Top 5 myths about subsidies to oil companies
Lorne Stockman
May14
This is a cross-post from Transition Voice. Written by Erik Curren Can the president who killed Osama bin Laden now stand up to Big Oil? Encouraged by comments made by House Speaker John Boehner that subsidies for oil and gas companies should be on the table, Democrats led by Montana Sen. Max Baucus last week…
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