 Yesterday’s presentation by American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard (right) was reported widely as the oil industry laying down the gauntlet for Obama to approve Keystone XL. The threat was indeed pretty clear. Gerard claimed President Obama would face “huge political consequences” if he denied the permit for the project. But the API’s agenda, which is clearly … Read More
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Big Oil Threatens President Obama
 By Brendan Demelle, DeSmogBlog American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard today announced the oil and gas industry’s latest election-year scare campaign to threaten the demise of the U.S. economy unless Big Oil gets its every wish in Washington. This year the wish list includes approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, expanded offshore drilling on both … Read More
Appeal Court Upholds Chevron Guilty Verdict
Chevron has been found guilty again. Yesterday, an Ecuadorian appeals court upheld a ruling that the oil giant should pay US$18 billion in damages for polluting the Amazon. It was last February that a local judge had ordered Chevron to pay US$8.6 billion in damages, but the amount was doubled to US$18 billion because Chevron … Read More
New Year: Old Dirty Tricks
It might be a new year but it’s the same old dirty tricks from the folks at the very unethical EthicalOil.org They are running an advertising campaign accusing leading Canadian environmental groups of being “front groups” paid by “Foreign special interests”. At the same time they have launched a highly misleading website called www.ourDecision.ca, which … Read More
Sun Sets on BP’s Solar Business
Just over a decade after BP rebranded itself “Beyond Petroleum” and introduced its famous sunburst Helios logo in honour of a Greek sun god, the oil giant has fatally undermined its “green” credentials by axing its solar power business. BP argues that it “can’t make any money” from selling panels at a time when it … Read More
Canada can try and sell tar sands to China, but a pig’s still a pig
Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper threw down the gauntlet yesterday to anti-Keystone XL campaigners when he said Canada would sell its oil to China and other overseas markets if the controversial pipeline does not get approval. In his year-end TV interview, Harper said: “I am very serious about selling our oil off this continent, selling … Read More
UK Arts Institutions Renew BP Sponsorship
There was widespread anger and dismay today from anti-oil campaigners after it was revealed that four of the Britain’s biggest cultural organisations – the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House and Tate – were going to renew their sponsorship deals with BP worth ÂŁ10m over five years. All four institutions have … Read More
Methane Leaks Alarm Scientists
In the fallout from the Durban conference, one of the debates I have heard is people debating what keeping warming to 2 degrees means, rather than letting warming increase to 3 degrees or even 4 degrees. One of the answers was that if warming goes above 2 degrees the chances of a runaway greenhouse effect … Read More
“Dirty” Canada Dumps Kyoto Protocol
Finally the pretence is over. For years Canada said it cared about climate change at the same time as developing one of the most dirty fuels on the planet, the tar sands. But we knew it was a lie. For years Canada has told European politicians that it is committed to greenhouse gas reductions in … Read More
Picking over the “Corpse” of the Durban Deal
The good news is that against all the odds, the Durban climate conference produced a deal. To some the deal is seen as historic, but to many it is once again far too little. But first let’s look at the good news. Many delegates were really pleased after their marathon negotiating session that they had … Read More