February | 2012 | The Price of Oil

Posts in February 2012

Climate Denial in Canada’s Classrooms
Andy Rowell
Feb29
More bad news for the climate deniers at the Heartland Institute, which is still badly reeling from the controversial leak of information of its budget and strategy documents. It has now been revealed that an associate of the Institute taught a course at a top Canadian university that contained over 140 false, biased and misleading…
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Shell Should be Guilty Again
Andy Rowell
Feb28
Although the BP / Deepwater Horizon trial maybe hogging the headlines, another courtroom battle is equally intriguing and important. It is almost 3 years since the trial of Wiwa versus Shell settled for $15.5 million on the eve of the trial. Along with the Wiwa action, there was a parallel legal case, Kiobel Versus Shell,…
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BP Trial “Close to Settlement”
Andy Rowell
Feb27
So the trial of the century may not happen after all. This morning, lawyers representing over 116,000 plaintiffs had been due in court in New Orleans to begin the trial against BP and other defendants resulting from the Deepwater Horizon. The trial could have lasted two years. Documents in the case run to more than…
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Rising gas prices, Keystone XL and the real solutions
Lorne Stockman
Feb24
with Steve Kretzmann Much is being written and said about rising gas prices, Obama’s energy policies in general and the Keystone XL pipeline in particular. While the President’s opponents repeat ad infinitum the “Drill Baby Drill” mantra, it has been interesting to note that much of the mainstream press has been skeptical. And so they…
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Tar Sands: “No get-out-of-jail-free card”
Andy Rowell
Feb22
If you read some of the Canadian press coverage, a recent scientific study has offered the pro-tar sands movement a real fillip in its attempts to spin its dirty fuel as “ethical oil” that is no dirtier than conventional crude. The Canadians are now essentially arguing it gives them the scientific back-up to carry on…
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Bully-Boy Canada Threatens EU (Again)
Andy Rowell
Feb21
For over a year now I have been working on and off with Friends of the Earth Europe examining the dirty lobbying by the Canadians on the EU’s Fuel Quality Directive. Last summer we produced a report entitled “Canada’s dirty lobby diary”. The report revealed the extent of Canada’s lobbying – one of the most…
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Hypocritical Heartland Threatens Critics
Andy Rowell
Feb20
The climate sceptic think tank, the Heartland Institute, that last week was the victim of a devastating leak of information, has decided that attack is the best form of defence and has started threatening organisations and websites that published the leaked documents. It is interesting to dissect how Heartland, which has been in crisis mode…
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East Coast refinery shut downs are a symptom of the tar sands oil rush
Lorne Stockman
Feb16
…in the long term, what the industry has affected is not increased security via Canadian oil to the gulf coast, but a concentration of the nation’s refining capacity in the heart of the nation’s hurricane corridor. The lessons of 2005 have clearly not been heeded. Pennsylvania labor activists marched on Capitol Hill yesterday in protest…
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Climate Sceptics Exposed
Andy Rowell
Feb15
It was not probably the Valentine’s present the leading climate sceptic organisation, the Heartland Institute, was expecting. But after years of exploiting ClimateGate and leaks from climate scientists, yesterday they were on the receiving end of their very own leak. The climate denial watch-dog, DeSmogBlog, was leaked details of Heartland’s strategy and funding documents exposing…
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Over 600,000 Say No to KXL
Andy Rowell
Feb14
Once again it is the many versus the money. Starting at noon yesterday, a coalition of thirty or so environmental organisations, including Oil Change International (OCI) and 350.org set out to gather at least 500,000 signatures with 24 hours to stop the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The initiative came as a response to moves within…
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