Written by: Lorne Stockman, Greg Muttitt, and Alex Doukas The price of oil crashed to below $30 per barrel in early 2016, prompting not only a flurry of news stories highlighting things that cost more than a barrel of oil (including a bucket of KFC fried chicken), but also alarm from industry players and their supporters … Read More
Industry Analysis
Shell project cancellation confirms our latest report findings
Last week, we released a report entitled, Lockdown: the end of growth in the tar sands. The report, based on our unique Integrated North American Pipelines model (INAP), concludes that the tar sands sector is running out of room for growth. This is because with every proposed major pipeline delayed by citizen opposition, an imminent … Read More
Japan just lost its big excuse for pushing coal on the world; now’s the time to pile on the pressure
On September 25, the U.S. and China released a joint presidential statement on climate change. While most people focused on China’s new cap-and-trade regime, there was a buried headline that may have even bigger implications for climate and for the future of coal: China pledged to strengthen regulations “with a view to strictly controlling public … Read More
Lock Down: Report Preview
The end of growth in the tar sands? Oil Change International is poised to release a groundbreaking new model of the North American tar sands pipeline system. In the coming weeks, Oil Change International will publish a report based on our new Integrated North American Pipeline model (INAP). INAP will be the first publically accessible … Read More
Letter to G20 Finance Ministers: Delivering on G20 commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies
September 2, 2015 To: G20 Finance Ministers CC: Prof. Dr. Ahmet Davuto?lu, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Deputy Undersecretary for Turkish Treasury Cavit Da?da?, Ambassador Feridun Sinirlio?lu RE: Delivering on G20 Commitment to Phase Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies Dear G20 Finance Ministers, In the lead-up to the G20 Summit in November, we – 63 civil … Read More
What happened to Canadian heavy crude prices this summer and where might they go from here?
We reported in our June Newsletter that the difference in price between the Canadian heavy oil benchmark Western Canadian Select (WCS) and the U.S. light crude benchmark WTI had narrowed to $8 a barrel (bbl). This was remarkable in light of the much wider differential of $15-25/bbl that had become common since around 2010 (see … Read More
Alaska’s oil and gas production tax is now a corporate handout
Although Alaska’s budget troubles have made headlines lately, it’s shouldn’t come as a surprise that a sharp drop in oil prices has put a state with a noted overreliance on oil and gas revenues in a financial bind. But in the midst of Alaska’s dire budget woes, how many people know that, when it comes … Read More
Who’s Blowing the Carbon Budget?
When in a hole, stop digging – so the saying goes. When it comes to climate, we’re all in a deep hole, but who’s doing the digging? New analysis by Oil Change International shows that when it comes to increasing the pool of unburnable oil reserves, it is private oil companies that have been digging … Read More
The Little-Known U.S. Export Import Bank and Its Big Fossil Footprint
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) provides financing and insurance for the export of U.S. goods abroad, including an average of over $4 billion dollars each year over the last 7 years for oil, gas and coal projects. Ex-Im’s authorization, which needs to be renewed periodically by Congress for the Bank to stay in business, has … Read More
Newsletter: Whither Energy Markets? Clean Energy Growth vs. Fossil Fuel Fatalism
Last month the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a Special Report on climate and energy, to inform governments about what is possible and necessary between now and the climate talks in Paris in December. Taking a break from its usual advocacy for more investment in fossil fuels (such as here and here), the IEA’s top-line … Read More