Seventeen years ago I was one of many protestors at Shell’s AGM in London at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Centre that lies in the shadow of Big Ben, near London’s Parliament. There were two issues facing the oil giant that day: in Nigeria the Ogoni playwright, Ken Saro-Wiwa, lay in a disgusting and degrading humid … Read More
Month: May 2012
Haemorrhaging Heartland Still in Denial
Well the old adage is when you are in a hole, stop digging. Someone though has not told Joe Bast, the head of the Heartland Institute. Poor old Joe is feeling rather sorry that at his time of need his colleagues are deserting him. In a recent blog he criticises one such colleague saying that … Read More
Dirty Energy Money Buys Yet Another Keystone Vote
Those Representatives voting in favor of the inclusion of the Keystone XL pipeline in a transportation bill currently being negotiated by both chambers have taken over 11 times more money from Big Oil during this Congress – almost $6 million – than those opposed.
Eleven Donors Dump Heartland
Next week the cream of the world’s climate deniers will descend on Chicago for the Heartland Institute’s latest annual sceptic-fest. The headline for the conference is “Real Science, Real Choices.” That’s more fact-twisting propaganda from Heartland that has pushed climate denial for years. The Institute was hoping for a bumper conference that would help it … Read More
Irrational Exemption: Tar sands pipeline subsidies and why they must end
This briefing finds that the transport of tar sands oil through pipelines in the United States is exempt from payments into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which creates a free ride worth over $375 million to tar sands oil producers between 2010 and 2017.
Koch-ing the Climate: Exploiting the Tar Sands
Last week, the god-father of climate science, James Hansen, who directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, re-iterated his warning about exploiting the tar sands in an op-ed in the New York Times. His warning was dire: “Canada’s tar sands contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our … Read More
Dirty Energy Money pouring into Congress faster than ever before
Members of Congress have taken almost $16 million from the oil, gas and coal industries so far in this 112th Congress. That puts this Congress on track to be the dirtiest ever. The information comes to light as part of the latest update of DirtyEnergyMoney.com, a project of Oil Change International which uniquely refines and … Read More
Shell in Nigeria: Its Worse than Bad
And so it goes on. It might be a different day but the ongoing vortex of violence, pollution, protest and conflict continues in the Niger Delta. The oil giant, Shell is at the middle of this vortex, as it has been for decades, with the company unwilling to take adequate steps to stop the violence … Read More
Sponsors Dump Heartland After Ad Backfires
Last Friday, the long-standing climate denier think tank, the Heartland Institute ran an advert featuring the Unabomber on a billboard in Chicago that read “I still believe in Global Warming? Do you?” The Unabomber advert was going to be followed by images of Fidel Castro, Osama Bin Laden, and hostage-taker James J. Lee. According to … Read More
Scientific Study Warns Fracking Can Contaminate Aquifers
Sorry to hark on about this – but proponents of fracking keep on saying it is a precise science that is safe, which will not contaminate water supplies. But we know that is not true. We also know the technique is still essentially in its infancy and the science and detailed surveys into the controversial … Read More