Posts in Pollution

The Hidden Danger of the Gas Boom
The hype surrounding the US gas industry continues to grow as America moves ever closer to its cherished dream of energy independence. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that “the U.S. is the closest it has been in almost 20 years to achieving energy self-sufficiency, a goal the nation has been pursuing since the 1973 Arab oil embargo…
Continue reading ‘The Hidden Danger of the Gas Boom’.
EU: Fracking Laws Are Adequate, For Now
In a decision that will both dismay and worry environmental campaigners and communities facing fracking across Europe, the European commission has concluded that existing laws are adequate to cover the controversial drilling technique. A new report undertaken for the Commission by the Belgian law firm Philippe & Partners, argues that there is no need for…
Continue reading ‘EU: Fracking Laws Are Adequate, For Now’.
Fracking Causes Blowouts too
Another day and yet another reported problem with fracking. Canadian regulators are now investigating the possibility that fracking could have caused a blowout in a neighbouring well which was producing oil several hundred metres away. The country’s Energy Resource Conservation Board was alerted last Friday after a landowner saw black fluid spraying fifteen metres into…
Continue reading ‘Fracking Causes Blowouts too’.
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…
Continue reading ‘Appeal Court Upholds Chevron Guilty Verdict’.
Tar Sands: “No Safe Way to Market”
The top brass of BP and Shell will have not been amused this morning when they opened their Financial Times to see a half page advert staring at them about the ecological cost of the tar sands. The advert, entitled: “Tar sands – 23 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil” demands that…
Continue reading ‘Tar Sands: “No Safe Way to Market”’.
Chevron Faces Possible Brazil Drilling Ban
Eighteen months after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, we have another country threatening to ban an oil company after a deep water spill. Yesterday it was Brazil’s turn to say it might ban Chevron from drilling in its deep water oilfields as punishment for the 3,000 barrel oil spill from the company’s Frade project. Chevron has…
Continue reading ‘Chevron Faces Possible Brazil Drilling Ban’.
Oil Spill off Rio Sets Chevron at the Center of Scandal
Chevron is at the center of a scandal over the oil spill in the offshore Campos Basin Frade field about 230 miles from the coast of northeast Rio de Janeiro. Originally the company said that the spill was natural seepage from the field. Well, no, it appears it was not. The scandal began to unravel on…
Continue reading ‘Oil Spill off Rio Sets Chevron at the Center of Scandal’.
New Zealand’s “Worst Maritime Disaster”
First things first – this is no Deepwater Horizon. But it is still being called a disaster and it looks like its going to get worse. The 47,000 tonne container ship Rena is currently grounded on a reef in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty and it is leaking heavy fuel oil after running aground last…
Continue reading ‘New Zealand’s “Worst Maritime Disaster”’.
“Everything Koch stood for was a lie”
Ever since Greenpeace outed the Koch brothers as the largest financiers of climate change denial, the secretive brothers have started getting much more media attention. The fact that they are also major backers of the controversial Tea Party movement – with its loathing of environmental protection and dismissal of climate change – has added to…
Continue reading ‘“Everything Koch stood for was a lie”’.
The Flaring Scandal that Shames the US
Twenty years ago, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was then largely unknown in the west either as an environmental activist or writer, started touring the capitals of Europe to drum up support for the Ogoni campaign against the oil giant Shell. Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni had many issues with Shell – the fact that they had received…
Continue reading ‘The Flaring Scandal that Shames the US’.
Archive by Month
- February 2012 (6)
- January 2012 (25)
- December 2011 (12)
- November 2011 (31)
- October 2011 (24)
- September 2011 (15)
- August 2011 (12)
- July 2011 (12)
- June 2011 (15)
- May 2011 (18)
- April 2011 (15)
- March 2011 (15)
- February 2011 (18)
- January 2011 (23)
- December 2010 (16)
- November 2010 (23)
- October 2010 (28)
- September 2010 (16)
- August 2010 (19)
- July 2010 (22)
- June 2010 (21)
- May 2010 (24)
- April 2010 (17)
- March 2010 (20)
- February 2010 (20)
- January 2010 (18)
- December 2009 (15)
- November 2009 (20)
- October 2009 (22)
- September 2009 (20)
- August 2009 (20)
- July 2009 (13)
- June 2009 (17)
- May 2009 (13)
- April 2009 (19)
- March 2009 (21)
- February 2009 (18)
- January 2009 (20)
- December 2008 (13)
- November 2008 (20)
- October 2008 (19)
- September 2008 (23)
- August 2008 (18)
- July 2008 (18)
- June 2008 (41)
- May 2008 (55)
- April 2008 (64)
- March 2008 (60)
- February 2008 (65)
- January 2008 (66)
- December 2007 (47)
- November 2007 (52)
- October 2007 (63)
- September 2007 (59)
- August 2007 (54)
- July 2007 (63)
- June 2007 (76)
- May 2007 (73)
- April 2007 (49)
- March 2007 (79)
- February 2007 (60)
- January 2007 (72)
- December 2006 (51)
- November 2006 (46)
- October 2006 (43)
- September 2006 (49)
- August 2006 (38)
- July 2006 (40)
- June 2006 (43)
- May 2006 (44)
- April 2006 (49)
- March 2006 (47)
- February 2006 (18)
- January 2006 (24)
Archive by Category
- "The Price of Oil" Blog (2379)
- Afghanistan (1)
- African oil (9)
- Amazon (3)
- API (4)
- Arctic Oil and Gas (15)
- Big Oil Profits (8)
- BP (98)
- Brazil (4)
- British politics (2)
- Canada (104)
- Car Industry (1)
- Carbon Emissions (7)
- Carbon Intensity (4)
- carbon trading (1)
- chemicals (1)
- Chevron (5)
- China (72)
- Clean Energy (1)
- clean energy future (12)
- Climate Change (41)
- climate sceptics (77)
- Coal (39)
- Conflict (1)
- Corporate front groups (5)
- Corruption (4)
- Deepwater Horizon (89)
- energy access (3)
- Energy Activism (3)
- energy policy (94)
- Energy Security (19)
- EU (13)
- Exxon (2)
- Featured (247)
- Fracking (23)
- Fuel Efficiency (1)
- Gas (7)
- Gas Prices (3)
- greenwashing (47)
- Gulf of Mexico (106)
- health impacts (10)
- Impact on Wildlife (8)
- Indigenous rights (5)
- Iraq (168)
- Jobs (2)
- Keystone XL (32)
- Libya (4)
- Litigation (18)
- lobbying (32)
- Middle East (30)
- Nigeria (29)
- Northern Gateway (1)
- nuclear (19)
- Offshore Drilling (5)
- oil and gas subsidies (25)
- Oil in the Soil (1)
- oil industry outlook (97)
- Oil Price (6)
- OIl Price Speculation (1)
- Oil Reserves (2)
- oil spills (110)
- Oil supplies (5)
- OPEC (2)
- Peak Oil (2)
- Pipelines (14)
- Pollution (243)
- Protests (27)
- Public Relations (85)
- refining (29)
- Renewables (20)
- Research & Opinions (19)
- Revolving Door (2)
- Rick Perry (1)
- Russia (3)
- Safety (61)
- Scientific Research (1)
- Separate Oil and State (80)
- Shale Gas (10)
- Shell (16)
- Solar (11)
- Storage (1)
- Subsidies (10)
- tar sands (124)
- Taxes (3)
- Ultra Deepwater (2)
- US politics (223)
- Violence (5)
- War (60)
- Wind (1)
- World Bank (12)