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Posts in June 2011

Sceptic Gets $1 Million from Oil and Coal
Andy Rowell, June 29, 2011
Two Greenpeace-related stories in two days for you. Yesterday the blog was about how Greenpeace was attacking VW for its poor performance on fuel efficiency and for blocking climate progress in Europe. Let’s turn back to the US for a moment and hats off to Greenpeace US’ research director Kert Davies, who has been tracking...
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VW’s Dark Side
Andy Rowell, June 28, 2011
Europe’s largest car maker, Volkswagen, is harbouring a “dark secret” according to Greenpeace. Despite its populist and consumer-friendly image, VW stands accused of greenwashing its dirty activities, trying to water down action on climate change and refusing to make popular models more fuel efficient. According to Greenpeace, the car maker has repeatedly claimed that it...
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Houston “I think we have a big problem”
Andy Rowell, June 27, 2011
As I have often written about in the past, the oil industry is all about risk and reward. At some stage it has to lure large scale investors to bet large amounts of money that it has found large reserves of oil gas than can be readily exploited. It is an industry that is often...
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Dave Versus the Dinosaurs
Andy Rowell, June 22, 2011
When British Prime Minister, David Cameron staked his reputation on leading “the greenest government ever” he knew that many people would hold him to account to make sure his words translated into action. People also knew that he had a problem: that vast swathes of the Conservative party are climate sceptic, no more so than...
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Always read the small print
Andy Rowell, June 21, 2011
Investors may have poured their cash into the rogue’s gallery that is the new venture by Tony Hayward and “Nat King Coal” Rothschild called Vallares. As I blogged yesterday, Vallares was over-subscribed raising just over $2 billion to buy assets in the oil and gas sector. Investors were said to be reassured by Hayward’s knowledge...
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Hayward and “Nat King Coal” Launch Oil Venture
Andy Rowell, June 20, 2011
This could be a toxic mix: take Deepwater-disaster man, Tony Hayward; the new coal baron, Nat Rothschild, and bankers Julian Mertherell and Tom Daniel, the former from discredited Goldman Sachs. Together you have someone who was ultimately responsible for America’s worst ever environmental disaster; someone who obviously does not care about climate change having invested...
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Shell’s Pipeline At War With the People
Andy Rowell, June 15, 2011
On and off for twenty years I have written about the oil industry. I have worked with communities from Alaska to Africa who have been threatened by Big Oil. So often the stories are the same: an industry that is indifferent to local concerns and needs. It is an industry that bullies and effectively bribes...
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Well, something’s going on…
Andy Rowell, June 14, 2011
From the southern states of the US to Northern Europe the words on many people’s lips is: Drought. In Texas the worst drought in more than a century is beginning to cripple the state. Ironically it is also threatening Texas’ fracking boom as there just isn’t enough water to go round. In Texas, it is...
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UK Gov Dismisses Fracking Inquiry Call
Andy Rowell, June 13, 2011
Another day and another review has been ordered into the controversial technique called fracking. Last week, the Governor of Maryland established the “Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative”, which will review the safety of the drilling technique for natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in Western Maryland. “We are also very concerned about an array of...
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Keystone Could Add a “Billion-Tons” of CO2
Andy Rowell, June 8, 2011
As the row over the Keystone XL pipeline continues, the US is sending mixed messages over the dirty tar sands. Speaking to the Gas and Oil Expo and Conference, David Jacobson, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, waxed lyrical about Canada, describing it as the “safest and most secure foreign supplier” of oil the US. “The...
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